What Was So Unexpected About That?
by Conjera
Summary: Things in town go haywire when Arthur is told that Frey has a price on her head. Frey could care less, but everyone else is going nuts trying to protect her. At the same time Kiel gains a stalker, Dylas seriously contemplates his relationship, a few new romances bloom and someone gets knocked up- WAIT WHAT! As if life in Selphia wasn't crazy enough! (gets dark in later chapters)
1. Chapter 1

_**WARNING! This story will contain Arc 2 and 3 spoilers! Repeat! This story will contain Arc 2 and 3 spoilers!**_

And in other News it will also involve DylasXFrey, LeonXForte and DougXXaio Pai and a few more TBA

Plot: Things in town go haywire when Arthur is told that Frey has a price on her head. Frey could care less, but everyone else is going nuts trying to protect her. At the same time Frey begins a new quest, Dylas seriously contemplates their relationship, a few new romances bloom and someone gets knocked up- WAIT WHAT?! As if life in Selphia wasn't unexpected enough!

* * *

"What in God's name is that?"

Doug turned around and saw Leon standing behind him looking at the Melon he was stocking in shock.

"Um, pink Melon?" He raised an eyebrows at the man and held it up for inspection. "Frey just delivered us more for the store." Leon hesitantly grabbed it and inspected it. "Is something wrong?"

"It smells like a strawberry."

Doug gave a soft laugh as he took the fruit back from the bewildered Priest. "That's good! It's a hybrid of the two. It's a newer fruit, so to speak, so I guess I could understand if you aren't familiar with it..." Doug narrowed his eyes a little. "You aren't familiar with it right? You aren't just messing with me?"

"Sadly no, not this time." Leon shook his head and looked at the others. "I had hoped though, that even though everything changed food would have stayed the same." He gave a small sigh and begrudgingly smiled at Doug. "And I had finally thought I was catching up."

Doug stared at the man for a moment before he smiled. "Tell ya what, why don't we cut up one of these bad boys and have some for lunch? Granny's making Salmon Onigiri."

"I shouldn't intrude..."

"Aw come on! Granny loves feeding everyone! She even feeds that horse bastard when he's around."

Leon looked at Doug for a moment more before he smirked a little. "Since you put it so elegantly, how can I refuse?"

"Alright!" Doug went back to stocking some more melons when he stopped and looked back at Leon annoyed. "The elegant thing was sarcasm huh?"

"This time yes."

"Hey you two!" Both men turned around and saw Forte staking towards them. "Have you seen Frey?"

"Frey? Not as of late." Leon gave a soft yet dramatic sigh and looked wistful. "It does make it hard to steal her away."

Doug chuckled. "Have you asked Dylas? Perhaps he kidnapped her!"

The boys both gave a small laugh and Forte stomped her foot a little to quiet them. "This is serious! No one has seen her since yesterday." Both grew silent and looked at each other surprised. "We checked to be sure and she isn't in a dungeon flower, and no one can think of any requests she could be on either! Meg went to look for Dylas, but normally he tells her when Frey and he have a date..."

Doug gave a small huff. "The bastard normally boasts to me too... but if Frey is just out exploring he might not know. I mean, when she went in the Dungeon Flower we didn't know until Clorca went in and found her there."

"Yes, but Dylas and I made her promise to tell us f she left."

"If I may," both looked at Leon, who seemed as calm as ever. "Why are you so worried?"

"Huh?!" Forte stared at him uncomprehending.

"Frey is an adult woman and has proven many times to be able to care of herself. If Amber was missing like this, then I could see why you would be so anxious." He moved his head over and fanned himself a little. "However Frey… She did defeated Ethelberd after all. Why are you so much more worried now?"

Forte opened her mouth to respond when Margaret came rushing in. "We have a problem! Dylas is missing too!"

"Well there you go, they eloped together!"

Forte growled a little as Meg looked concerned. "Please Leon, this is serious! According to Porco, Dylas left work yesterday to accompany Frey somewhere! Arthur never saw him come home last night and he hasn't shown up for work either!"

"Oh, this is bad!"

"It still sounds like an elopement to me."

"...well.." Meg looked at Leon a little worried. "I don't know."She thought about it for a moment and looked hopefully towards Forte, "I guess we didn't think about that." As the other three looked at her surprised, she backtracked. "I don't mean to say they, er, eloped, but what if they left for some, well, alone time?"

Leon and Forte both looked scandalized at her and Doug shook his head. "Nah, Dylas wouldn't do that. He keeps saying Frey's way too innocent and vulnerable to even think of doing anything before they get married." As the surprised glances turned his way Doug sputtered, "Look I was hanging around with him and Arthur one day and he mentioned it, it's not like I make a habit of letting him talk about personal stuff with me!"

"...So," Leon looked at Forte, who was still a little in shock at the dwarf's announcement, "if we can rule out alone time, then we can probably rule out eloping. A man with that sort of moral compass wouldn't want her to miss having traditional ceremony." He shook his head again, "Though, I still do not see any major issue. Frey and Dylas are both competent warriors."

"Arg!" Forte turned around and glared at him, "It's not that simple!"

"Forte, Margaret!" the group turned in time to see Arthur racing into the shop. "Any luck?"

Forte bowed a little and reported, "No, all we have found out that is that Dylas is missing along with her."

"I see." Arthur looked troubled. "Then something is defiantly wrong. I spoke to Xiao Pai and she appears to have asked Frey about finding an Emerald for her. The farthest they should have had to go was maybe Autumn Road..."

Finally everyone let that information sink in. "Perhaps... Horse-face and her.. um... maybe they got lost?" As everyone turned to look at Doug he held up his hands in defense. "Look, I know it's reaching, but Frey has a real shitty sense of direction, and if it's a dungeon Dylas isn't familiar with then it would take time for them to get out."

"Frey knows an excellent Escape Spell though."

"... I said it was reaching..."

Arthur turned to leave, "I'm going to get some people and start a search party. We need to find them."

"A search party?" Leon ran forward and put his staff in front of Arthur blocking his path.

"Uh!" Arthur looked over at Leon, almost looking angry now.

"What is going on?" As Arthur stared at him bemused, Leon gave a small fox-like growl. "Frey is a competent warrior, she saved numerous people's lives many times. Dylas is skilled enough to keep up with her and helped in the defeat of the shadow water Dragon and Dolce's Guardian Form. Why are you panicking?"

Arthur looked at Leon and finally gave a small sigh. He adjusted his glasses and simply stated, "I have received word from the capital that some of Ethelberd's follower's are looking for Frey." Leon blinked in surprise and moved his staff down a little. "Apparently they don't believe their former King is dead and believe our Kingdom to be holding him somewhere. Since Frey is the one who defeated him, they believe capturing her will help them find him." Leon continued to stare at Arthur before finally giving his head a slight nod. Arthur returned the gesture and left.

"I'm going to go find Vishnal." Doug decided, getting up. "He has an Airship License. He could fly me and probably Illuminata around to look for them."

Meg nodded at him. "I'm going to let Porcoline know what's going on and have him keep a look out for them as well."

"Very well." Forte sighed as they left and looked at Leon expectantly. "I know Frey is fond of Autumn Road, and since she went with Dylas there is a higher chance she went there. I wish you to accompany me there, as you are a skilled enough fighter."

"...Thanks, I think. However, what if they aren't there?"

"The only other area might be the forest, but since the monsters there are weaker, other villager's should be able to handle that area."

"I see. Then perhaps we should go find Arthur and let him know our plan so they don't start looking for us as well." Forte reluctantly nodded. As they headed out Leon smirked. "I still think you're going overboard though."

* * *

"Everyone! Everyone please calm down!" Arthur stood at the front of the gathered crowd looking tired. "Please! We don't need any more confusion than we already have!" Finally people began to quiet. "Thank you." Arthur looked at his book and cleared his throat. "Now as many of you are aware Frey and Dylas have been missing since yesterday morning. They left to go find an Emerald and haven't returned to town."

"This is my fault, yes." Xiao Pai said, looking glum. "If I hadn't asked for the emerald..."

"Xiao Pai, we don't know that anything has happened." Keil reassured her. "Like Arthur said, it's just a precaution! Just like they would do for us!" He laughed a little. "I still remember when I was studying Mushrooms and Frey went out to find me. I was only gone half a day!"

"Forte contributed to that." Clorica stated.

"Oh."

"..." Leon looked at Forte, who was shaking her head a bit. "Are we not telling them?" She glanced at him from the corner of her eye and looked forward. "No. Everyone would panic more than they already are."

"I see."

"Now then!" Arthur called out, "Vishnal, Illuminata, Doug and Jones are going on the Airship to search from the Yokmir Forrest to the Lava Ruins. Dolce, Bado and Raven will be searching Autumn Road. Barret, Lin Fa, and Volkanon will be searching Selphia Plains. Amber, Keil and Xiao Pai will check out the Forrest and Leon and Forte will search Leon Karnak." He closed his book and looked around. "The rest of us will stay here in case they return. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Arthur opened his mouth in surprise and Forte whipped around to look at the confused and slightly battered looking Frey and Dylas. "Who are you all looking for?"

"Princess!" "Frey!" "Dylas you asshole!" "Funny Face!"

In a matter of seconds the two were surrounded as people hugged or smacked them.

"You morons!" Meg said as she hit them both on the heads. "Don't you ever make me worry like that again!"

"OW!" "Hey!"

Meg stamped her foot angrily, "Where were you two?!" Dylas rubbed his head and Meg's expression softened. "Your wrist... what happened?"

"Well," Frey shuffled her foot a little. "I needed to go get some minerals and decided to take Dylas with me. I thought we'd just go to Yokmir forrest and maybe have a picnic but..." She looked down at her cut clothing and various scratches. "Things got complicated."

"I'll say." Dylas interjected as Nancy hurried over to look at his wrist. "Some Sech Soldiers ambushed outside the forest. We went in to lose them and ended up fighting near a cliff. One of them went to push Frey off and,"

"Like an idiot!" Frey all but yelled at Dylas, who looked away from her, "He pushed me away and got knocked over himself!" She seemed to forget herself a little and smacked his head in a very similar fashion to Meg. "You're lucky I could heal you up a little with that seal on me!"

"Hey! I was not about to let you get knocked off a cliff, if that's what your suggesting I should have done!"

"I'm an earthmate! I can handle falls better than you!"

"I'm not a weakling! Being a guardian gave me a higher fighting and defense than a normal human!" He grabbed one of his ears dramatically and glared. "These aren't just for show!"

"YOU! Arg!" Frey and Dylas glared at each other for a moment longer until Frey's expression begn to soften "It's just... you... you were falling and I couldn't do anything. All I could think of was... you losing your memory like me or... not being able to help you and-and-you..." Dylas sighed and hugged Frey with his free arm.

"I'm sorry, kay?" She nodded a little and he smirked. "Next time I'll take you down with me.

"Good."

"You're not supposed to agree with that!"

Arthur coughed a little and the two both jumped in surprise, obviously forgetting that they were surrounded by the entire town. Dylas sputtered a bit at the look Doug and Leon where giving him and Frey looked at Arthur, drying her eyes with her glove.

"Well, after Dylas... fell... I uh, well I may have gone berserk." She gave a nervous laugh and looked at her hands. "The whole cliff thing was sort of a last ditch effort on their part anyway. Dylas had knocked out one of them and I was making short work of another. Anyway... I knocked them out and jumped down to check on Dylas."

"You... jumped?" Jones looked a tad surprised before he shook his head. "I'm not overly surprised I suppose."

"Yeah, she landed next to me, patched us up the best she could and we tried to head to the other end of the caverns we were in to get out. We both have seals on us-"

"Not anymore." Dolce said from where she had sneaked behind them.

"...We both had seals on us and it took awhile."

Arthur nodded. "I see..." He smiled a little and looked over at Doug happily. "It appears you were right. Frey got them lost."

"Hey! You just assumed I'd get us lost!"

Amber laughed, "Frey you always get lost!" Frey glared for a moment before smiling back at the butterfly girl.

"I guess that is true."

Volkanon clapped his hands together and yelled out, "Alright, crisis is over, everyone can disperse back to their homes. I'm sure Frey and Dylas will need to be examined by Jones and Nancy more thoroughly and will want to rest. Dismissed!"

"Yes sir!" Everyone looked as Vishnal and Clorica left, almost on reflex. Soon everyone was following their example, Arthur staying behind to talk to Frey and Dylas more about the soldiers. Finally only Forte and Leon were left. Forte looked over at Leon awkwardly before turning to go herself. Leon smirked and followed her.

"I told you."

"That's your best come back? I told you so? In case you weren't listening they were attacked! It was like we feared! And with Ventuswill gone..." She stopped and composed herself a little.

Leon grunted in annoyance. "I'm not saying that loosing Frey wouldn't be bad for the town, or Dylas, for that matter, as he brings her some odd sort of joy... but I am saying that you were worrying too much."

"Worrying too much!" She huffed and held her head up higher. "Just because I decided to worry, whereas you never worry at all, that doesn't mean I worried too much!"

Leon was quiet and Forte smirked a little, then she felt a small yank on her arm and she was turned around to face Leon. "What gives you the right to assume I wasn't worried?"

"Oh please!" Forte said angrily. "You kept saying how they could both defend themselves just fine!"

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe I was just reassuring myself?" Forte opened her mouth and stared at the man towering over her looking haughty and sad. "...I see not."

"Well, if you were nervous why didn't you say so?"

He now smirked at the girl, "As you should be well aware, no one here is very good at expressing themselves... except," He said with a playful light in his eyes, "perhaps Procoline."

"I-I... you're right."

"I am?" Leon asked letting go of the knight's arm.

"Yes." She looked down a little and sighed. "It was foolish of me to assume you didn't care. I mean... I know how much Frey means to you... she saved you after all...and you feel, very strongly about her."

Leon smiled sadly at her. "Yes, I do. It seems that somehow Frey has worked her way into my heart... as that of what I can only call," Forte braced herself a little as he took a breath, "My best friend."

"...huh?"

Leon looked back at her cheekily. "Frey is a very good friend of mine. She reacts well to my teasing and seems to enjoy it as much as me." Forte blinked a little as he leaned in, "But no worries, you're reactions are far more entertaining."

"WHAT! Wait, I- why would you think I would be worried about that."

"Well," Leon said as he began to walk away, "I suppose you know why."

"You-You! Why would you assume!" She stopped as he turned around and looked at her.

"Really?" He moved closer to her and Forte stood in bemusement. "Are you truly going to play the clueless card?"

"What-What are you talking about?"

He stopped once his chest was almost touching hers. "Perhaps," he reached over and gently placed his hands on her face, "I could show you just what I mean."

Forte saw him leaning in towards her face and felt her heart skip a beat as she realized what he was going to do. Then, to as much her surprise as Leon's, she moved her own head forward so her lips would meet his. For a second there was a surprised stillness. Then, just when she thought Leon would pull back, he began to kiss her again, and she let him.


	2. Chapter 2

"Amber hold still." Dolce said warningly as the small girl fidgeted on the stool she was standing on. "I mean it. If you can't keep still I won't hem this dress for you."

Amber gulped and became a statue. Forte looked over from where she was eating an apple in her kitchen and raised an eyebrow. "Not that I mind, but why are you hemming that dress again?"

"Because, Frey gave it to me!" Amber exclaimed happily, and then seeing the look Dolce gave her she once more stood motionless. Dolce gave a small huff of annoyance and began pinning the dress again.

"Apparently," Forte jumped as Pico appeared behind her, "Frey bought the dress awhile ago on accident and couldn't return it." Pico sat on the table and Forte gulped. "From what I gathered, Amber saw it, liked it and couldn't afford it, so Frey gave this to her!"

"Yeah, but because I'm small it needed to be stitched up!" Amber looked at Dolce who stared back at her for a moment, before she gave a small smile. "Wee!" Amber spun in a circle and dramatically posed for the two. "Doesn't the yellow look great on me?"

"It does, but that's not what I meant." Forte explained, trying to not look at the ghost in her way. "Why are you doing this in my house?"

Dolce coughed into her hand and Amber stopped moving. As she grabbed the dress, she explained. "Jones and Nancy have been busy attending to the soldiers Frey nearly killed. However, the Sech Soldiers are well enough to be moved and are being handed over to the capital today. Nancy kindly asked me not to be in the house while the officials are there." Dolce stopped sewing. "Aren't you supposed to be supervising?"

"…The move is tomorrow."

"Uh, Milady Forte?" Pico interjected. "It's today. Before I popped in here I was watching the officials arrive."

"UH!" Forte jumped up and raced over to her safe. "Oh no!"

"Calm down Forte!" Amber said watching the Knight curse as she put in the wrong combination. "I'm sure you aren't late yet. Wouldn't they need to meet with Frey and the others first?"

"It doesn't matter! If a Knight of Lady Ventuswill is not early, then she is late!" Forte pulled out a blue sword and dashed past. "I will return when this matter is finished, if Keil stops by please tell him the grocery list is on the shelf!" The door to the front of the house began to open as she looked over her shoulder at them. "Farwell- UH!"

Forte crashed into the person entering, who fell backwards down the steps. "Whoa!" there was a small crash and a very unenthused, "Ow."

"LEON!" Forte raced out the door and helped the former Priest inside. "Are you okay?"

"Yes… a little bruised but fine." He winked at her. "I see though that I've caught you as you are leaving… again." Forte blushed a bit and looked away from the man, causing Dolce to suspiciously glare at the both of them. "I supposed I will wait here for you to return then."

"It, uh… may be awhile."

"That's fine." Leon smiled at her calmly enough, but Forte stilled gulped. "I'll wait here with these lovely ladies."

"Hey Foxy?" Everyone turned to look at Amber, who was staring at Leon's shoulder. "Did you know you're bleeding."

Leon glanced at his back. "Oh, so I am. It must have happened when I fell on the steps outside."

"…Dolce with everything going on at the clinic, could you?"

"Yes." She said blandly, waving a hand dismissively.

"Thank you! Now I really must go. Farewell!"

"…Everything at the clinic?" Leon asked confused, turning towards the two other girls.

"Yes, the soldiers are being transferred into capital custody today, Forte needs to be there to oversee that the switch goes smoothly." She got up and pulled out a chair for Leon, who seemed to be thinking heavily on the matter.

"So she really is busy today?" He sat down and mulled that over. "Interesting."

"Today?" Pico asked curiously.

"…Yes. For the past few days Forte has been avoiding me on a matter I wish to settle."

"What happened?" Amber asked as she got down to help Dolce.

"We shared a passionate and confusing kiss full of raw emotion and meaning." As the girls stopped moving and stared at him in shock, he began laughed. "We got into an argument and I want to apologize."

"Oh…" Dolce grabbed the wet cloth Pico had levitated over to her and began to clean the wound. "That does sound far more plausible."

"It does huh?" Leon smiled sadly and noticed Amber looking at him. "Yes?"

"I'm trying to figure out who fights more, Doug and Dylas or you and Forte." Leon blinked in surprised before smirking cheekily.

"Can anyone really as bad as Doug and Dylas?"

"Hmm… probably not. Besides," the girl continued as she spun round happily. "You and Forte do it when you're both mad at the other. I think the others do it just to do it."

"…That very well may be." Dolce finished putting on the bandage, and then turned to Amber. "Okay, back on the stool, and arms up this time. I need to take it in a little as well."

"Kay!"

* * *

"Psycho bitch!" The one soldier yelled loudly at Frey as Jones escorted him over the soldier waiting by the door. "You'll get what's coming to you! You and this entire town!"

Frey sighed as he was pulled out, and then sighed again as the other man shrank as far away from her as he could while being led out. Jones stared at the three men being loaded into the armored wagon, then looked at Frey amused. "It seems you made quite the impression on them."

"Well, the last two where the ones who were responsible for throwing Dylas off of a cliff._**"**_

"I had wondered about that." Jones gave a very reassuring pat on the back and moved over to talk to Nancy, while Frey watched Forte begin escorting the soldiers out of town.

"Miss Frey?" She looked over at Volkanon, who was watching her intently. "Are you alright?"

"Me, yeah I'm fine." She smiled and looked back out as the carriage disappeared from sight. "I'm just glad this is all over now." Frey walked out and Volkanon followed her.

"Miss Frey, where are you headed?"

"I'm going to the Lava Ruins. Bado is actually doing work and left a request on the board for a fire crystal, so I figured I would go get that."

"Before you go we should discuss your body guard arrangement."

"…I'm sorry, my what?"

Volkanon stood up even straighter and looked grandly at Frey. "What with this new threat out on you, and regarding the recent incident, it has been decided that we need to put a detail on you, so that no more attempts shall be made on your life."

Frey sputtered a little, and Volkanon pulled out a small book from his pocket. "Now then, today I believe Doug had offered to escort if needed. So you should stop by the general store and 'grab him' as you young ones say. Tomorrow, it seems that Margaret volunteered to assist you."

"Hold on!" Frey exclaimed, "How many people are on this detail?"

"Only those who already knew, and Vishnal, who still does not know of the continued threat, but wishes to better himself by guarding you."

"Volkanon, this is complete unreasonable!"

"Unreasonable? Miss Frey it is necessary! We do not know how many were employed to capture you by the radical group, nor do we know if they will retaliate solely based on the fact they're men were captured. Until we do know, it is vital we keep your safety as top priority!" Frey started to argue and Volkanon simply raised his hand to silence her. "Miss Frey, it would forever haunt me if anything happened to you. In many ways… though I shouldn't say this as your butler… in many ways you and Clorica are like my daughters.. and I don't wish to see you hurt."

"Mr. Volkanon…"

"So please, until we know more, do me a 'solid' and accept the body guards."

"… When you put it like that I can't really say no."

"Hence why I brought it up! Now then, report to Doug if you do need to leave!"

"…That was low."

* * *

Forte stared at her house, looking worriedly at the window in which she could see Leon in the Kitchen, obviously cooking something. She took a steadying breath and willed herself to move towards the door, with absolutely no results. Forte sighed and turned to leave when she heard, "So it must have been some fight you two had."

"Oh, hello Dolce…" Forte looked over at her friend watching her intently. "Did you finish the dress alright?"

"For the most part. I need to do some more stitching tonight, but it should be ready for Amber to wear around tomorrow." She looked up through the window at the Priest cooking. "Are you going to talk to him?"

"…"

"He told us you two got into a squabble. If I may," Dolce sat on the step and motioned for Forte to sit next to her. "What was it about?"

"A fight, huh?" Forte shook her head and sat down. "It's not quite that simple…" Dolce stared at her patiently and Forte gave a small huff. "He and I… well… when Frey and Dylas returned we did get into a fight of sorts. I told him he didn't care, and he… well… defended himself that he did. Then, er… I… told him he like Frey… he called me clueless and-"

"Ah, I see." Dolce shook her head at the girl. "You truly are though."

"What?"

"Clueless. You really should give him a chance you know."

"But, I, we…" Forte gulped and shook her head. "Yes… perhaps this is something we should work out together… Um… maybe I will go inside…"

"Alright." Dolce stood up and waved. "I hope you settle your disagreement." She began to walk off and Forte just stared.

"Sorry, Milady really is just as clueless."

"PICO!"

Pico giggled and stuck her tongue out at Forte. "Sorry, I couldn't help but to listen in… and Dolce is clueless if she thinks all you and Leon did was argue."

"Sh-she is?"

"Yup." The ghost sat cross legged in the air and looked at Forte seriously. "Dolly asked Leon what happened and he said it was a kiss, but neither Amber or Dolly believed him, so he said it was an argument… but he looked kind of sad neither one thought he was serious." Pico looked meaningfully at the Knight. "When you're as old as I am, and are aware of the years passing, you tend to pick up on the smaller things others miss."

"…"

"I get you two wanting to keep this between yourselves, if that is what you want, and I won't tell Dolly… but you really should talk to him." She began to float off in the direction of the clinic.

"Wait Pico!" The girl turned and looked at the Knight. "…Thank you."

"No problem!" She smiled widely, "So does this mean you won't jump when I'm around anymore?"

"I can't really make any such promise."

"Hehehe, I know!" Pico disappeared and Forte gulped. She never would get use to that ghost girl's habits. She took another long breath and looked at her door. Sighing, she got up and opened the door. "Hello Leon… we need to talk."

"Obviously." The man threw the towel he was using on the counter and motioned to the assortment of snacks he had prepared on the table. Forte gaped at the food and looked up at the man.

"How long did you think I would be gone?"

"I got bored… and I wasn't sure how long this discussion would take." He sat down and looked at Forte expectantly. She sighed and sat in the chair next to him. "You've been avoiding me."

"Yes."

"I assume the reason involves our kiss."

"Yes."

"Did you not enjoy it?"

Forte smacked him on the head. "Of all the things to ask first!"

"Well, did you?" Forte stopped and blushed bright red.

"…Yes."

"Yes what?"

"Yes I enjoyed it." Forte sighed. "It just complicates things though."

"How so?"

"Well… I er… I haven't really kissed anyone like that before…"

"Really?" Leon leaned in, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Well, there was one night I was hanging out at the restaurant and a visiting knight bought me drinks and we ended up kissing." Leon's face defaulted into a frown and Forte backtracked a little, "but besides that no. I haven't kissed someone… I truly like before." She looked at the table, obviously avoiding his gaze. "I've never truly liked anyone before… and that… that's distracting.

"I've been thinking over those kisses so much and what they could mean, and just today it caused me to slip up in my duties as a Knight. I can't afford to be distracted if I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the person… and I can't risk getting Keil hurt. He adores you… if this turns out to be nothing more than a flirting, he would dislike us both and wouldn't know what to do."

"I see." Leon leaned back and thought for a moment. "Well, I know I would not have kissed you, twice no less, unless I knew I loved you." Forte looked up in shock, but Leon held up his fan to keep her from interrupting him. "I care for you greatly, though if you are unsure about me, that does cause complications …And you are right. We cannot accidentally hurt Keil. In some ways…" Leon frowned a bit here, "he is like my brother. I would hate to lose that bond with him… but I would hate to lose his sister more."

"So what do you propose we do then?"

Leon smirked, "It's simple. We don't make things official. We see each other from time to time, maybe have a lunch here, a dinner there, we go on some outings outside of town together, and we test the waters of our relationship, before we make things public."

"And what of it distracting me?"

"You see, I rather enjoy that part." Forte gasped in shock, then growled angrily and grabbed a sandwich close to her and threw it at him. "Hey!" he picked the food from off of his lap and grinned evilly. "I'm sorry; I thought you were a Knight of the Scared Dragon. Can't you overcome distraction?"

"Don't use that line against me!"

"Don't try and hide behind that line then." Leon calmly reached over and smushed the remainder of the sandwich in her face. "And don't waste food."

"You realize I must end your life now."

"With Ongiri?"

"Indeed."

* * *

"…" Dylas stared at his girlfriend as she looked at her menu intently. He opened his mouth to ask her a question when he was interrupted.

"Yo, horse face! Why did you think this was a romantic date?"

"… Why did you bring pint-sized exactly?"

"Apparently he feels like this is his fault and is going a little overboard on his protection detail." Frey answered shortly. "I told him I wouldn't leave town after dinner, but he doesn't believe me.

"Nah, it's not that." Doug said from the table next to them. "It's more of that I don't trust Dylas to keep you safe."

"WHAT!"

Doug smirked as Dylas whipped around in his seat to face him, and then sobered up a little. "And... I don't think, I know." Frey looked up at him concerned. "If I hadn't blindly followed what the Sech's empire had told me, then I wouldn't have become a spy, Ventuswill would still be here, and Frey… you wouldn't have a price on your head." Doug smiled a little begrudgingly. "You can't tell me that's not true, because I know it is…"

"Doug…" "…"

"Heyyo!"

"Oh, hello Xiao Pai!" Frey smiled at the girl, but nervously glanced over at the dwarf sulking at his table. "Are you here to pick up dinner?"

"yes, yes! Proco is making stew for us tonight!" She smiled happily at the two. "You are on a date, yes?"

"Uh-huh!" Frey replied happily and Dylas gave a small forced smile.

"We're trying to be."

"You are going to feed each other like last time you were here, yes?" Frey blushed and Dylas hid his head in his hands. "You two are cute! … I hope one day to have a lover as well."

"I'm sure you will!" Frey said, glancing over at Dylas, who was still groaning into his hands.

"Feed each other huh?"

"…Shut it dwarf."

"Oh! Herro Doug!" Xiao Pai smiled widely at him. "Are you enjoying dinner as well, yes? Would you like some company?"

"Um… I well, I,"

"Doug would actually." Frey said smiling. "He seems to be in a bad mood, and could use someone as happy as you to talk to!"

"But... if happy is what he needs should I not get Amber?"

"No." Frey smiled a little harder than necessary. "I think someone as nice and happy and understanding as you would be good for him." Doug stared at Frey accusingly, but when Xiao Pai looked at him he blushed and cleared his throat.

"If you want… I guess I wouldn't… mind."

"Oh, yes, yes! I would enjoy that!" Xiao Pai smiled widely at the boy and Doug sighed and glared over at Frey, who stuck her tongue out at him in return. Then she pulled Dylas up to the counter so they could order.

"…So," he said looking down at her. "What was that about?"

"What?" Frey asked innocently.

"Seriously? You could have been more obvious, but it would have been hard."

"What can I say? I ship it." She giggled as Dylas groaned and told Porco his order. "Plus, I happen to know they both like each other a lot, so I thought I'd give them a little push."

"Wait, those two?"

"Yep!" Frey beamed as they made their way back to the table. "Remember passing them on the way to the lake during the Firefly festival this year? And on white day he gave her cookies," Frey winked at him as they sat down. "Purely as friends though."

"Heh, I see." Dylas smiled at Frey as she sipped on her glass of juice. "I still don't see it though."

"Oh, you will." She smiled more as Porco sat down their plates and waved encouragingly at Dylas, who in turned glared at him. "Do you want to try a bite?"

"… The feeding thing is tradition now, isn't it?"

Frey blushed happily as she held out her fork for him. "There's no getting out of it Pony-boy."


	3. Chapter 3

Meg sighed as she cleaned up what was left of the food supply. It seemed that Porcoline had raided the fridge in the middle of the night, again, and hadn't left much for himself to have to prepare for the customers. She held back a second sigh as she remembered Dylas had today off.

Grumbling to herself as she went, she grabbed a basket she had next to the door and she went out and made her way over to Frey's Farm, where the girl had stashed some extra food for Meg and Dylas for such occasions. As she walked towards the stairs leading to the farm, she saw said girl coming up the stairs, looking angry.

"Good Morning, Frey! How are you?"

"Oh! Um, good morning Meg." Frey gave her a slight head nod and started to walk away.

"Going to meet Dylas? He had mentioned he was hanging out with you today."

"No, he was going fishing with Leon today."

"I see." Meg watched Frey pick up her pace and veer off towards the airship. She narrowed her eyes and raced to catch up with Frey, noticing the girl giving the pilot instructions to Idra Cave. "Frey, where's Vishnal? Isn't he supposed to be accompanying you today?"

"Um... He'll be here in a minute." Frey smiled nervously and waved Meg off as nonchalantly as she could. "I'm just, er, getting everything ready to go is all!"

"I see. Then, would you mind if I waited here with you?"

"Eh?" Frey's mouth opened in a surprise and she had a small bead of sweat roll down her neck, "That's really okay you know."

"Oh, I know. I also know that Forte would gut Vishnal if he did mess up and let you wander off alone."

"Oh come on Meg!" Frey whined. "It's been two weeks since I agreed to this whole body guard thing, and not one thing has happened since the soldiers!" Frey sighed and grabbed Margaret's arm in a pleading way. "I'm not going anywhere I haven't gone by myself a million times before, so please, let me have minutes to myself!"

"Frey, you know i can't." Meg felt her heart break as tears started forming at the corners of Frey's eyes.

"Meg... Please? Everyday people check on me all day long, Doug is still blaming himself, Volkanon checks on me every two hours on the mark, Clorica actually woke herself up to check on me and Dylas is a nervous wreck!"

"...Why does that make me want to sympathize with you? Frey, they're doing this because they care- and if you go off on your own Dylas is only going to get mad at you."

"If I can go off, for even just a few hours, and show that I won't be attacked, everyone will calm down a little. I really just need a few minutes of peace, please!"

"...Urg..." Meg sighed at the look Frey was giving. "You're really going insane aren't you?"

"I really am."

"...fine. UH!" Meg stumbled backwards as Frey rushed her and engulfed her in a hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, a million times thank you!" Frey pulled back and smiled happily, all traces of tears gone. "I'll be back by three at the latest, and if you see Vishnal just tell him I'm hanging out at the baths! That should keep him from checking on me till then!"

"You're sly, you know that?"

"Yep!" Frey smiled as the captain called out to her. "Look, I owe you one, and I promise I'll be safe!"

"You better be." Frey grinned even bigger and waved at her friend as she boarded. Meg stayed to watch the ship take off, then sighed heavily. She would be waiting here at three sharp, and if Frey wasn't back, then she'd go straight to Volkanon and Forte. Meg let herself give a small satisfied hum as she turn to go. Yes, that would be a very good punishment, if she was late.

* * *

"So, have you caught anything yet."

"Leon, we've only been here five minutes." Dylas looked over irritably at the fox man next to him, who was dangling his line in a bored fashion. "Seriously, why do you keep insisting you do this if you hate it so much?"

"Amusement in annoying you I guess." Leon sat by the edge of the lake and yawned. "Besides, I don't hate it and how else does one, who is not Frey, get a good conversation out of you."

"... I'm not that bad... am I?" Dylas looked a little concerned, so Leon smiled reassuringly.

"No, Doug can get you to argue well enough." Dylas growled in annoyance and Leon gave a small chuckle. "Actually, I do need some advice, if you could."

"Oh?" Dylas seemed surprised at this, but didn't challenge it at all. "On what?"

"Well... how did you ask out Frey?"

"..." Dylas didn't answer and instead focused on really in his tugging line. Leon allowed him to unhook the char, and hang it on there line, before he began to feel irritated at the horse. Dylas came back over, set his pole down, and sat next to the priest.

"Are you ever going to answer?"

"...I don't know." Dylas looked confused and finally looked at the man curiously. "Can I ask what brought this up."

"No."

"Then what gives you the right to ask for advice!?"

"...Perhaps I should ask Frey instead."

Dylas glared before smirking. "You actually should. She asked me out."

"Come again?"

"Frey asked me out." Dylas chuckled at the memory. "She came up to me, looking all flustered and embarrassed, and right in front of the restaurant, she just blurted out 'I love you!' I was pretty stunned... and to be honest, I really don't remember how I responded." Dylas flinched a little. "Scratch that. I told her to come back later so I could think. Then, the next day, I yelled out how I felt, called myself a dumbass...then gave her a hug."

"You really are bad at expressing yourself."

"Shaddup!" Leon chuckled a little and Dylas looked over, the annoyance leaving his face a bit. "So... that girl you told me about, the one with the story, did you ever read the last few pages?"

Leon stayed silent for a moment before looking at Dylas with a sad smile. "I did...Keil and Xiao Pai made me read all of it in the end a few weeks back. She... she lived happily, in the end. Maria... found a new love and moved on to be happy with him." He smiled up at the sky. "I can't say how much that means to me." Dylas nodded and looked up at the clouds above them.

"So who do you want to ask out?"

"Are you ever going to ask Frey to marry you?"

"Don't change the subject!"

"DYLAS!" both men turned and saw Vishnal running towards them, looking very warn out. His uniform was disheveled and his face seemed flushed. "There you are!" Vishnal stopped and put his hands on his knees while he caught his breath.

"Vishnal, what's wrong?" He stood and grabbed the man's shoulder, shaking him a bit. "Did someone else come? Is Frey okay? Was she hurt?"

"Dylas!" Leon grabbed the man and made him loosen his hold on the poor butler. "He can't answer if you're shaking him."

"Huh? Oh... um, sorry. What's wrong?"

Vishnal had a small sweat bead roll down his face as he stared at the two taller men in front of him. "Well... I lost Frey."

"YOU WHAT!"

"Sh-she was changing this morning and told me she wasn't going to be going anywhere, and when I checked on her a little while ago.. she wasn't in her room, or the inn or any place she normally goes, and it's not swimming weather yet-" Vishnal gulped as he noticed Dylas's clenched fist. "I-I checked with Meg and she said Frey was at the bath's, but when I double checked Lin Fa said she hadn't seen her at all!"

Leon sighed and put a hand on Dylas's shoulder, then looked at Vishnal calmly. "Is it possible you two passed each other on the road?"

"Oh yes! It is very possible, but I thought maybe Dylas would of known her schedule at all." Dylas twiched and shook hishead. "Ah, I see. Well, maybe she's back at her room. I can go check?"

He looked warily at Dylas, who took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. I'll come too." Vishnal looked over at Leon and he sighed.

"I'll follow along as well. After all Dylas still needs to tell me his intentions for my best friend."

"HEY! You still need to tell me who-" Leon shoved a hand over the former lightning mare and glared.

"WE can discuss this later."

"uh... Leon?" the boys looked at the lake's entrance and saw Dolce looking at them all very confused. "What are you doing?"

"This seems naughty." Pico chimed in. "Does Frey know you all are into this? EEK! Not the talisman Dolly!" Dolce pulled her arm back and looked at the males expectantly.

"We were discussing something. What are you doing?"

"Frey heard that Vishnal was looking for her. I had seen him come this way, so I came to let him know that she said she going to her room for a while."

"Oh thank you Dolce! That's a big help!"

Dolce waved it ff with a small wave of her hand. "It was nothing." As she turned to go, she stopped and looked at Vishnal particularly hard. "I was asked by Meg and her to inform you that she was supposedly visiting me today."

Dylas tensed and Leon gave a small growl. Vishnal looked at Dolce confused. "Wait, if Meg knew she was visiting you, why did she tell me to go to the baths?"

Dylas opened his mouth to answer, but Leon put his fan in front of Dylas's face. "Wait, let him get there on his own." Vishnal looked over even more confused, then suddenly he gasped.

"Wait! Supposedly! You'd know if she was there! Th-they lied so Frey could sneak off!"

"And now he made it." Leon gave his fan a flourish. "Shall we go give our Princess a piece of our minds on this matter." Dylas didn't answer, but made his way towards the path and the palace. Leon followed and nodded at Dolce as he and Dylas passed her.

"Don't be too hard on her please." Dolce watched as Vishnal raced to catch up to them, "Hey Vishnal?" He turned and looked at her.

"Yes Milady?"

"...Why have you all been following Frey around? The soldier thing... wasn't it a one time incident?"

"I believe this is just be sure." He said with an easy smile. Dolce looked uncertain and he walked over and grabbed her hand. "I'm sure Forte and Volkanon are just being thorough, you know how they can both go a little overboard." Dolce didn't answer, but continued to stare down the path that the others had disappeared down. Vishnal noticed and smiled warmly. "Don't worry, I'm sure they're just mad Frey didn't ask them about easing up and that she tried to lie about."

"If you're sure, then I'll your word for it."

"Aaaaannnd~" Pico cut in, glaring at Vishnal, "You can let go of Dolly's hand now!"

"Oh!" Vishnal blushed and immediately withdrew his hand. "I'm so sorry! I-I didn't realize I was doing that! Hehehe..."

Dolce blushed and gave a small smile, "It's fine."

"I, uh, I should probably go make sure Frey and Dylas don't, um, I should go."

Dolce nodded and smiled as Vishnal made her way out of his sight.

"Oh, not you too!"

"...What are you going on about Pico?"

* * *

Dylas entered Frey's room and looked around angrily. He didn't see her right away so he went over to the room he knew she kept her weapons and clothes in. He stared not seeing her. "Frey?" he waited a moment before giving a huff of annoyance. "Frey!"

"She's not in with her forges either." Leon stated as he came in. "Should we check her fields."

"..." Dylas nodded and they went to go out as Vishnal came in. "She's not in here."

"Oh. That's odd, didn't she tell Dolce she'd be here?"

"She also told Meg to say she'd be at the baths." Leon pointed out as they made their way out. "Should we check the monster barn?"

"LEON!" They all turned and saw Frey racing up.

"Found her."

"Leon I need you go find Keil!"

"Hey!" Dylas looked at her angrily. "What do you think you were pulling running off like that?"

"Yeah, bitch me out later." Frey said holding up a hand and looking at them all urgently. "We have a bigger matter right now." They all stared in surprise and Frey made a small noise of frustration. "Leon, right before Venti disappeared, we brought a Traveler in to be tried by Venti, remember?"

Leon look nervous. "Yeah..."

"i remember that!" Vishnal exclaimed. "You said he was following Keil around!"

"He was. I had hoped Ventuswill would eat him, but she banned him from the city. Why are you bringing this up?"

Frey wrung her hands. "He's back."

"WHAT!"

Frey nodded gravely. "I saw him a few minutes ago, but lost him at the town square. Illuminata saw him before me though and told me she was following him due to something he had said about Keil that made her nervous."

"What did he say?" Vishnal asked timidly.

Frey took a breath and when she spoke an angry tone colored her voice, "That Keil is so innocent looking. He just, makes you think about inappropriate thoughts."

"I'm killing him." Leon turned to leave, when Frey grabbed his arm.

"No, you're finding Keil." Leon glared at her and Frey glared back. "We started looking for this guy about ten minutes ago, and we need to find him. Look," She said as Leon started to argue, "I don't want Keil to get hurt, so making sure he's safe from this creep is first priority. So you're going to find him and bring him to Forte. She's going to keep him at Porcoline's until everything is sorted out." She turned and looked at Dylas. "You're coming with me to search by the lake."

"And me?" Vishanl asked.

"Lower east side." Vishnal nodded and whipped out his Acutorimass out of nowhere and raced off.

Leon looked unconvinced, but left anyway. "Hey Leon!" He turned and looked at Frey. "When your done keep guard around the observatory." Leon nodded and stalked off. Frey took another long breath, then grabbed Dylas's arm and pulled him off.

"What happened before?"

Frey stayed quiet before she looked at him with murder clearly written in her eyes. "He pinned Keil against a wall. Leon and I were coming back from Autumn River when we passed by. We found them in time to make sure nothing happened, but Ventuswill always thought he'd come back." Frey clenched the sword hilt in her hand tightly. "She was right."

"...And she didn't eat him?"

"She said she didn't want indigestion."

Dylas looked at Frey, who just raised her eyebrows at him. Finally he just shook his head and pulled out his gauntlets. "So what does this bastard look like?" Frey smirked and started explaining, completely unaware of the shadow she and Dylas passed under while leaving her room.


	4. Chapter 4

Forte paced around the small room nervously, fiddling with the hilt of her sword and glancing at the door to the room warily. Kiel, who was sprawled out on the room's bed, rolled his eyes and tried to concentrate on the book he was reading and not the subtle clink of his sister's mail. He felt a small tick of annoyance as he heard her sword start to be unsheathed again, only to clank against the sheath a moment later.

Forte moved over to the window, showing a small garden of flowers behind the restaurant, and scanned the scenery closely. She gave a small hum of satisfaction and once more began to pace. Kiel gave a small sigh of annoyance and sank a little deeper into the pillow, only to stop and sniff a little.

"Hey Forte?"

"UH!" Forte jumped and quickly composted herself as she faced her brother. "What is it?"

"Whose room are we in again?"

"I think its Dylas's room. Why?"

"Because it smells kind of good in here, ya know?" Forte stared at him confused and Kiel shrugged. "It smells like a clean spring is all, and kind of like vanilla and sawdust." Forte looked suspicious, but after a moment she sniffed the air herself and looked surprised. "See?"

"This makes Frey's comment about love at first smell make more sense."

"Frey fell in love with Dylas's smell?"

"Huh? Oh! Uh, no! That is trivial dribble! Not of importance!" Forte crossed the room and stared sternly at her brother. "You did not hear that!"

Kiel help up his hands and gave a small grin, "Okay, okay! I didn't hear anything, calm down sis!" Forte sighed and resumed her pacing, grumbling a little to herself. Keil sat up a little and gave his sister a look of exasperation. "Could you stop that?"

"Stop what exactly?" She asked, still pacing.

"All this walking in a circle. It's kind of annoying."

"No. I am casing the parameter."

"It's a ten by twelve bedroom Forte; there really isn't much to case." Kiel pointed out. Forte mad an agitated sound, but didn't stop her pacing. Kiel groaned in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. "This is overboard you know."

"What's overboard?"

"All this." Kiel crossed his legs and stared meaningfully at his sister. "I'm not a little kid anymore. I can take care of myself. I'm not the same person I was two years ago when…" Kiel struggled for a moment before continuing, "This happened. I've trained in defensive and offensive magic, I've become a lot better when it comes to weapons and I know more of what to look out for." Kiel reached out and grabbed Forte's hand, making her stop finally. "I can handle myself."

"…" Forte stared at Kiel and gave a small sigh, before she slipped her hand out of his sadly. "I know you aren't Kiel, but you weren't defenseless then either." She grabbed his shoulder as she stared into his eyes. "I wasn't worried then about you walking through town or concerned that someone might attack you… I wasn't worried that the Sechs would invade. I wasn't afraid that anything terrible would actually happen to Ventuswill or that two years later Frey would attacked. I-I was never worried about Father. I've been far too careless with my worries, and it has cost dearly every time."

"Forte…"

"I could never forgive myself if something were to happen to you. When I think about before, how if Frey and Leon hadn't come by… if Illuminata hadn't been following him this time..." She stopped and took a deep breath. "I know you are stronger than you look Kiel, and I know you are turning into a warrior in your own right, but please allow me to do my job as your sister and this town's Knight and protect you."

Kiel looked grave as he gave a small nod. Forte returned the gesture and began pacing again. It was silent for a few moments until, "What do you mean stronger than I look?"

* * *

"Any sign?"

Amber looked at Illuminata and shook her head. The self proclaimed detective made a noise of frustration as she followed Amber towards the bathhouse. "I can save you some time. Forte has me checking with everyone every few minutes."

"Frey has me doing the same thing. Although, she did ask me to be careful and requested I stay with someone."

"That's actually a good idea Amber. Hey! Since we both have the same job why don't we stay together? After all, two eyes are better that one!"

"Yeah!" Amber's wings came out in excitement. "We're working a case together Ellie!"

"…I just wish it wasn't this one." Illuminata looked ahead towards the back way to the castle. "…Hey Amber, do you know if anyone checked the Sunset Fields?"

"I think Vishnal mentioned looking for Frey there."

Illuminata's eyes narrowed, "So not recently then." She looked at Amber with a glint in her eye. "If it were me hiding from everyone here, I'd hide where no one would expect me too. The castle!"

"Wouldn't that actually be Kiel's house?"

"… We'll check there second, this is more unlikely."

"How come?"

"Because," she said as she started looking at the descending stairway, "This is the most fortifiable building in the city. Ventuswill used to reside here, and this is also where Arthur, Volkanon and Frey normally meet to talk security. It makes sense to hide Kiel here and if he is after Kiel he'd want to be close to… to… him."

"Ellie?" Amber looked concerned as Illuminata leaned down to inspect something. "What did you find?"

"A footprint. It's a male's who's probably tall, but not Dylas tall… plus Dylas's are bigger. Not Leon's since he where sandals or Vishnal since he wears those fancy boot… these are defiantly traveler boots." Illuminata stood up and looked around at the grounds around her. "I see another over there by the yams."

"Oh! There's one here by the monster barn too!" Illuminata raced over.

"That one is Dylas's. Huh." Ellie leaned in to look closer before she smirked. "Frey's a lucky girl. Come on; let's check over by the yams."

"GET BACK HERE!"

Illuminata spun around in time to see two blurs racing towards her and Amber. On instinct she pushed Amber over and pulled out here small sword. She followed after them and turned and yelled to Amber, "GET OTHERS!"

Amber stood still for a moment before she watched them run into Ventuswill's chambers. She turned to go, when she stopped, turned, spread her wings and stared to fly around the building. As she got to the front she saw Bado standing there.

"BADO! They're coming out! Guard an entrance!" Without hesitating he raced towards the castle in time to see someone come flying out a door. He went to hit but stopped at the last second seeing Doug sprawled out on the ground, his arm bleeding. A moment later Ellie came out of the servants' area, fighting someone.

"Dirty low life!"

"You don't scare me wench!" he smirked at Ellie and quickly moved his dual blades so that it hit her hand.

"ELLIE!"

Illuminata twitch at the sound of amber's voice, but didn't lose focus on her fight, or her grip on her sword. She slashed back at the pervert, who sidestepped and stabbed at her, which she narrowly avoided. Bado move closer, getting ready to help, when the man finally took into account his audience. He growled and Illuminata stopped and dropped to the ground in time to dodge a ball of shadows hitting her head. The man made the same noise and Bado dodge and swung his long sword at the man. He jumped back and nearly fell down the stairs. Bado took another swing, and this time managed to make a mark on the man's side. He growled and adjusted his grip on his dual blades and Illuminata came back to the fight.

"The jig is up!" Illuminata and glared daggers at the man. "Maybe we'll go easy on you if you come over quietly. We'll turn you over to Frey or Volkanon, and not Leon or Forte!"

"Names mean nothing Wench!" The man charged again and the three where at it again. Amber stood watching, wanting to help, but also not wanting to get in the way. Bado was fighting harder and with more skill than she had ever seen Forte fight with, and Ellie, well Ellie was terrifying her with how deadly she looked. Amber looked over and saw Doug getting up and raced over to stop him, but was surprised to see him just watching gravely like she was. His defender was laying useless on the ground while his sword arm hung limp.

The mystery man did a flurry of moves and Amber watched as Bado and Illuminata were both pushed back by what seemed like a gust of wind. The man threw his arms up and shouted a spell out, to which Ellie shriek and raced forward, trying to grab him. She fell on the ground a second later as the man vanished in blue light. She cursed and smacked the ground. Bado looked solemn as he panted.

"He's good."

"It's sickening." Illuminata stated as she got up and brushed herself up. "The only other people I know who can do that move with dual blades are Frey and Forte." Bado nodded and slung his sword over his back. He immediately went over to Doug. "What happened to you?"

"He saved my hide. We lost him for a moment in the castle and he tried jumping me. Doug saw him and blocked him. The guy got him with his other blade though." Ellie said as she went over to Amber. "You okay kid?"

"Uh-huh." Amber looked at Doug, who was leaning against the castle, as Bado ripped up his shirt to bandage his arm.

"You should probably get this checked out by Doc; it looks like he may have severely damaged your muscle."

"Mmmhmm…." Doug looked hazily at Illuminata and gave a rueful smile. "Sorry I waznt mucha help."

Amber shot Illuminata a worried look and Lumi shot one to Bado, who looked nervous.

"Hey kid, you feeling okay?"

"A little groggish…" He looked at the trail of blood he left. "I hav the worz luck… I gotta lotta karma due though…."

Bado picked up Doug bridle style, to which Doug protested weakly, before looking at Illuminata. "I'm going to get him to Jones."

"Okay, we'll go let Forte and Frey know what happened." They nodded at each other and Illuminata started to head towards the castle. Amber followed and both women stopped at the door connecting the Dragon chambers and the servants' quarters. Amber felt a little sick seeing the blood that splattered the wall and she start of the trail. Then as she looked at how grave elf was and she felt chilled.

"Ellie?"

"Yeah?"

"… I'm glad you're okay."

"… Yeah."

"Have you always fought so well?"

"… Kind of." She gave a small laugh and looked at Amber. "To be honest I haven't really fought except to spare with Bado since I left my country and came here." She looked once more at the wall. "I guess I should do more though." She sighed and started to walk again, and Amber caught up quickly, using her wings to give her a boost.

As the exited to the fields Illuminata glanced at the footprints and then stopped. "Amber, did you notice what sort of shoes the other guy was wearing?"

* * *

"… I really don't think my room is suppose to hold this many people." Dylas blandly stated as He looked at how his tiny room was cramped full of people. He was standing in the doorway with Illuminata, who for some reason kept staring at his feet. Amber was sitting on top of his dresser, Forte was standing by the window, Frey was sitting on his desk and Leon was sitting on the chair. Keil and Vishnal were sitting on his bed.

"I'm kind of surprised everyone managed to get in here." Leon agreed.

"…" Forte looked at Illuminata, "And he did an escape spell of some sort?"

"Yeah." Illuminata looked up at Forte, crossed her arms and leaned on the frame, "If I were him I'd probably stay away for awhile before I'd try again."

"I'm not as sure." Leon leaned back in his seat looking perturbed. "While I was observing the observatory, I was wondering, why did he wait two years? Why did he come back now?" He glanced over to a small portrait Dylas had on his desk of Ventuswill, the guardians and Frey. "I think it's because word is going around that Ventuswill is really gone."

"That makes sense." Kiel agreed. "Ventuswill's presence did bring a lot of extra protection to this town. I mean, who wants to attack the place where a Dragon could eat them for breaking the law."

"If it didn't give her indigestion." Leon blandly stated. Dylas glanced over at Frey and noticed she was gripping her battle skirt and not looking at anyone.

"Frey?" Everyone turned and looked at the girl, who didn't respond. "You okay?"

"I… I'm fine… I just wish…" Amber leaned down and put a hand on Frey's head consolingly. Frey took a deep breath and looked up at everyone. "We need to figure out what to do to catch this guy. To be honest, it weirds me out that he's still obsessed with Kiel after this long."

"Maybe," Vishnal suggested, "Kiel reminds him of an old boyfriend or something like that."

"Perhaps, he is simply someone who needs to feel the sting of my sword!" Forte growled.

"Don't take that thing out in here!"

"…I apologize."

Leon chuckled softly, then looked grave again. "We should keep a detail on Kiel until this manic is caught."

"Agreed." "Yeah." "Smart plan."

"Hold on!" Kiel looked around the room concerned. "You're kidding right? I'm not defenseless guys! And besides, for all we know he's gone for another few years!"

"Then maybe just when you leave the town?" Vishnal suggested.

Frey snorted and everyone looked at her. "Sorry, but that's how Volkanon got me to agree to a detail and now I'm followed everywhere."

"Oh, Princess that reminds me! Volkanon wished me to inform you that you're grounded."

"What!"

"All in favor of the grounding?" Leon asked. Frey looked around in disbelief as everyone, even Kiel, raised their hands.

"… I hate you all." Frey sighed and looked at Forte, who was string at Kiel in a conflicted manner. "Forte what's wrong?" Everyone turned to look at the Knight, who continued to look at her brother in the same unsure manner. "Forte?"

"… I know how to catch him." She tore her gaze from her brother and looked at Leon sadly. "This man has waited to come back, obviously waiting and planning. If I am correct, he was not such a swordsman when he was last here?" Both Leon and Frey shook their heads. "Then he has wanted this. Attacking Doug, Illuminata and Bado also suggest he won't give up to easily. He is mentally unhinged… he will try again soon." She took a deep breath and looked at the ground bitterly. "The best way to catch him, is to bait him out."

"WHAT!" Dylas and Leon both shouted and everyone else stared shocked, except Illuminata, who more looked bemused.

"I didn't think you'd go for that." Everyone stared at the Elf. "I was thinking about that in the castle. He was trying to kill me. It was pure luck Doug noticed in time, and for him to be desperate like that… he's nuts."

"…" Frey looked at Kiel and sighed. "This, this is why you're so instant on the guard huh?" Dylas gave her a 'not-the-time' look and Vishnal nodded vigorously. Frey looked at Forte. "Baiting though?"

"I want you to be assured, I don't like the idea… but he will come after him again, and I would rather have us all waiting for him figuring when he would strike, rather than later when we may only have one person with Kiel."

"I think I know how we could do it." Everyone looked at Kiel and he smiled. "For a week, let's have a guard on me, just someone with me whenever. Let's have it be people who look really tough, like Forte, Dylas, Leon and Bado."

"Not Frey?"

"She doesn't exactly look tough." Leon pointed out. Frey smacked him on the head and he winced. "I didn't say you weren't… You just look too cute to be tough."

"Anyway," Kiel said drawing the attention back to him. "On the last day, we have me go with Frey and we'll stage a fight and I'll run off outside of town."

"No. I veto this plan." Forte said cutting him off. "You are not running off on your own outside of town."

"… Not even if some soldiers and Volkanon where waiting for me at the forest?" Forte narrowed her eyes. "This was originally your idea sis. If he were going to ever take bait, it would be this."

"…" Forte looked concerned, but nodded.

"I have a question!" Everyone looked at amber, who was raising her hand. "What happens if he attacks at night?"

"I will be there to protect him!"

"… If I may?" Everyone now turned their attention to Vishnal, who looked thoughtful and calculating as Arthur. "I think it would be best for Kiel not to go home at night, but look like he is." At the confused silence he smiled. "Kiel should stay in the castle. There is a spell that can make him look like Frey, and we have him enter the castle at night looking like her, and she will go disguised as Kiel with Forte home. Then Frey, you can use your escape spell to come back to the castle yourself."

"Yeah!" Frey nodded excitedly. "We can also have additional people go with Forte to watch the house and make it look like he's defiantly there! Plus then if he does attack she's not alone!"

"Why wouldn't you just stay there?" Forte questioned.

"…I guess I figured Vishnal had me coming back here since I'm grounded and can help watch Kiel."

Vishnal nodded. "More or less, yes Princess."

Dylas made a small grumbling sound and Frey shot him a look. He shot one back and she stuck her tongue out at him. Leon raised an eyebrow at the man, and Dylas shot a dirty look his way, before asking, "Who's going to stay with Forte?"

"I can." Everyone looked at Leon and Dylas now raised an eyebrow at him. "I was listed as one of the tough looking individuals in town, and he has faced me before." Leon gave smirk and added, "Plus I can mess with Forte much better this way." Forte blushed bright red and sputtered. Leon then threw a serious look at Frey. "If he's obsessed with Kiel, he's probably also a little obsessed with the people who stopped him." He shot a serious look at Frey, "We should be careful as well until everything is sorted out."

"…" Dylas looked at Frey sadly as she nodded and hopped down off of the desk. "Then I guess that settles that. We'll start this whole swithcaroo thing tonight and hopefully will catch this jackass in a few days time." She smiled and looked at Kiel. "I'm going to get some dinner and then we'll do the spell. Okay?"

"Sure. I'm going to come with you actually. I'm starving." He followed after Frey, dragging Forte with him. Illuminata started to leave, then looked at Amber, who was still sitting on the dresser. "You coming?"

"No. I'm want to talk with Dylas and Leon." Illuminata shrugged and looked at Vishnal, who took the cue to get up and leave as well. Then only the former guardians were left, and Dylas just stared after Frey in the doorway.

"Dylas?" Amber asked timidly. "Are you… okay?" Dylas glanced over at her only long enough to cast a glare at the butterfly girl before he looked back to the stairway. "It's just Frey always seems to be in danger of some kind and I know you really care about her… you can talk to us you know. We all have a bond that can't really be ignored… even if Venti is gone."

Dylas stared a moment longer before he leaned against his doorframe, looking worn out. "I'm just worried, okay?" Leon looked surprised at the statement, but didn't comment on it. "Frey's always doing everything for someone, she's getting hurt every other day, and she…" He ran a hand over his face and looked very tired. "She's still taking Ventuswill's death hard. She feels responsible… She leaves flowers in the dragon chambers during every festival… and on Ventuswill's birthday, she just moped around all day." He gave a begrudging sigh and looked at the other two. "I just wish Venti was here. Then she and Doug might both forgive themselves a little and shit like this whole fiasco might not happen."

"…I think," Leon said surprised. "That's the most I've heard you speak at one time before."

"I'M BEING SERIOUS HERE!"

Amber smiled sadly at the former horse. "That's just how he ignores his own worries." Leon glared at her now, but she ignored it and looked at Dylas, "I miss Venti a lot too. I.. I think it would be better if she was back too."

"Yeah, but how can we get her back?"

"Perhaps we could try and find a way to the forest of beginnings, like Frey did." Leon mused. "Perhaps we could ask Barrette if he could make another ring like before."

"How would we get to the forest though?" Dylas questioned.

"Perhaps Pico would know."

"…Actually." They both turned and looked at Amber, who had a smile on her face. "I think I might know!"

* * *

_real quick author's note. Illuminata in the game from time to time shows she can be a grown up and can prove she really is older than Meg with Maturity. (It's rare thing but it does happen now and then.). I felt, obviously, that in this sort of situation you would see that adult, older than all ya'll elf, come out more. So no crap for Out of Character, because really, she is still in. _


	5. Chapter 5

"GOD DAMN IT!"

Dylas face-palmed as everyone in the restaurant turned to look over at the irritated red haired dwarf, currently glaring at his curry rice. Porcoline coughed a little and Doug looked up, noticed everyone staring, and glared. "Mind your own damn business!" Doug sunk back into his chair grumbling and soon people started going back to their own meals and conversations.

Meg made her way over and looked at Doug concerned. "You okay?"

"Do I look okay?"

"You look like a pouty kid actually." Dylas said, ignoring Doug's growl.

Meg lightly smacked Dylas in the arm and sat down next to Doug. "Seriously, what's wrong?" Doug glared at her, then sighed and adjusted his arm in the sling. Dylas stared at the sling, then he looked down at the plate and noticed the huge chucks of vegetables and a knife laying on the table.

"Ah." Dylas grabbed an empty chair from a nearby table and sat down. He grabbed the dwarf's plate and silverware and started cutting up the bigger pieces. Meg stared in shock as Doug began to sputter out a protest. Dylas paused his cutting briefly, glaring at the boy, before he stared again. "This is the reason you're causing the scene right? You can't cut this up with arm in a sling."

Meg blinked then smiled at Dylas and Doug. "That's what's wrong! Doug you should of said something!"

"Why? So I could get treated like a baby?" He sighed as Dylas pushed the plate back in front of him. "It's bad enough I got hurt, but… this is just humiliating." He reached for his fork, then glared suspiciously at the horse man. "You didn't poison this right?"

"A thank you would work fine."

Doug still glared, but started to eat anyway. Meg sighed and smiled ruefully at the two. "Would it kill you to both be civil?"

"I JUST WAS!" Dylas huffed and got up from the table. "Whatever. I can't babysit pint-sized all day. I gotta get back to work." He got up and looked over at the counter for the orders and then yelled. "PORCOLINE THOSE AREN'T FOR YOU TO EAT!"

Meg sighed and looked at Doug concerned. "How is your arm doing?" He shrugged and awkwardly poked at a potato piece. "It's a good thing Doc bandaged you up okay. Seriously, I'm not sure who's worse at getting hurt, you or Frey."

"Frey doesn't deserve it though."

"And neither do you." Doug glared down at his food and didn't answer. Meg opened her mouth to speak, when she was interrupted.

"Meg is speaking truth." Both looked over and saw Xiao Pai taking Dylas's empty seat. "You do not deserve misfortune Doug." Doug looked in shock at the girl and after a few moments of not responding she sighed. "You informed the Sech empire as a spy, yet, if you were not the one to speak to them another would of surely informed them of our lives instead. Perhaps one who didn't care, yes?"

Xiao Pai smiled widely at Doug. "Doug you cared much! You stopped being an informant and helped us and tired your best to protect the town. When others failed you still helped! You constantly try and trying is what matters more than all else!" She gave a small giggle. "Take this from the expert on trying, yes?"

Meg watched in disbelief as the dwarf blushed bright red and nodded. "I guess you have a point… a small and vastly wrong one… but a point."

Xiao Pai beamed at him, "If it is a point can it be wrong?"

"Shudup…"

Xiao Pai giggled as Dylas brought her some dumplings. "Perhaps after this you should come to the bathes, yes? We have a smaller bath for people who are injured and can't get stitches wet. And you work at Blossom's today, yes! I will help you at the store this afternoon!"

"Y-you don't have to do it."

"But I wish too!"

Meg noticed the dwarf blushing a bit harder, but he didn't protest Xiao Pai's help anymore. She glanced over a the counter and saw Dylas giving a triumphant smile. Meg raised an eyebrow at him and he just smirked baack. Intrigued she looked at the other two and excused herself. "I guess I'll leave you in Xiao's hands… I need to go check on something."

As she got up and went over to Dylas, he turned and seemed to busy himself helping Porcoline prepare food. "Dylas?" He glanced over at her and tried to look uncaring.

"yeah?"

"Did you send Xiao Pai over?"

"Why would I?"

"Dylas." She said warningly.

He gave a small sigh as Porcoline looked at him too. "Well, we can't babysit that stupid dwarf all day and it's obvious he needs to be helped. Xiao didn't seem to be doing anything useful, so I sent her over."

Porcoline gave a small laugh. "Nothing useful the only reason you sent the darling girl over? Nothing to do with Dearest Frey's idea the two are madly in love?"

"Don't call her that!" Dylas snapped. "And she doesn't think they're in love, just that they like each other."

"AW! Dally you're so sweet!" Meg cooed at him. "Helping Frey play match maker like that!"

"Shuddup!"

Meg giggled. "It's so sweet Dylas! I love how the biggest couple is trying to make other ones!"

Dylas looked at Meg irritated, then he smiled deviously.

"You know she thinks you and Arthur would be a cute pair too."

"WHAT!"

* * *

Leon crossed his arms and glared across the table. "I still don't like this."

Frey, who was currently disguised as Kiel, gave an exasperated sigh. "I don't either, but it makes sense to do it tomorrow."

Forte stopped chewing and frowned at the girl, "You must admit this is extremely risky Frey. This plan is based on a lot of ifs and maybes."

Frey gave a begrudging nod, "I do, but it makes sense. If you're going to attack or try and abduct someone, the middle of a festival is a great cover. We'll make it look like I'm busy running things, only half paying attention to Kiel, and he'll get mad at something and run off. Leon and you will follow him a little ways behind, and Kiel will run towards the forest where Dylas, Volkanon and a few of the visiting soldiers are going to wait nearby and when Kiel comes out, hopefully Pete will follow."

"Pete?" Leon asked raising his eyebrow.

Frey shrugged, "We don't remember his name and just referring to him as the creep or pervert was a small bit confusing, so Illuminata started calling him Pete, it caught on."

"I still dislike this idea… Especially during the Beach Festival…"

"But that makes it more likely for him to fall for it. He'll feel safer to mover since we won't be as near the castle, you aren't going to be in armor, and Leon will probably not be armed."

"Says who? We can't seem too relaxed." Leon challenged. "Though, I do agree with the no armor for Forte."

"Hey!"

Frey smiled, and Forte shook her head a little. "It is still odd seeing Frey's smile on my brother's face."

"Agreed."

Frey-Kiel shrugged and got up to go. "Oh! Before I forget Bado said to tell you he won't be coming over tonight."

"Why not?" Forte demanded, sitting bolt upright. Leon stared unamused as she leaned towards Frey looking worried.

"He didn't really say. He did say something about needing materials though." Frey-Kiel looked hopeful, "Maybe he's working?"

"…If you're trying to be funny," Leon stated, "It's not working." Frey stuck her tongue out and Forte shook her head again at how odd the action looked on Kiel. "You should probably be getting back to the castle soon, you have a big day tomorrow."

Frey waved off the comment nonchalantly, "It's no big deal really, though it'd make more sense for e to stay here instead of always sending me back to the castle at night." Frey pointed out. "This whole grounded thing is a little extreme."

Forte raised an eyebrow at the girl. "As is lying and running off alone with a price on your head. Until we are certain the threat is dealt with you should not leave town alone."

"It's been almost a whole season Forte; I doubt anything is going to happen."

"Yes," Forte said venomously. "Nothing is going to happen, like nothing happened to Ventuswill or Kiel?" Frey looked a bit surprised, but didn't respond. "Frey, you are far more important to this town than you realize. Please, trust us to keep you safe as I trust you to do for us." Forte sighed. "I just have a very bad feeling we have yet to see the end of this yet."

Leon watched as the Frey-Kiel nodded solemnly and he sighed. "Now why don't you go back to the castle Frey? Volkanon will probably send Vishnal soon if you don't show up."

"Jeez." She sighed but gave a small forced smile to the both of them. "I guess I'll see you both bright and early tomorrow." Frey moved over to a cleared spaced in the front of the house and looked sternly at the two of them. "No funny business you too!" Both froze and looked at Frey nervously.

"What do you mean?" Leon asked, trying to sound casual.

"No destroying the house. No arguments! And no tormenting Forte." Both gave a small relived sigh and then Frey added, "Also, Dylas told me to tell Leon he figured out who it was he asked advice on." Leon visibly froze and the Kiel lookalike narrowed her eyes. "What does that mean?"

"Nothing of importance right now." Leon said unclenching his jaw. Frey didn't seem satisfied but let it drop. She gave both a small wave and uttered her spell, disappearing with a small blue twinkle. Both stood there for a moment before Leon sighed. "Well, our secrets out."

"You asked advice on me?!" Leon didn't look at Forte, but got up and moved over to her kitchen. "Why? When?" Leon didn't respond as he began to fill a pot with water and heat it up. Forte stared at the man a moment longer as he rummaged through her cupboards and pulled out a tin and two mugs. "I didn't realize you and Dylas were friends."

"We share a bond."

"A bond?" Forte felt puzzled for a moment before understanding came to her. "Ventuswill?" The former Priest gave a small nod, but didn't turn around to look at her, instead focusing on whatever he was making. "I see." She thought about the idea of him asking Dyals for advice and felt a small worry creep into her chest. "What… what did you ask advice about?" Leon again didn't respond and dread filled Forte. "Is it because I'm being difficult?"

"What?" Leon finally turned to look at her, his expression somewhat hurt. "Why would you think that?"

"Because I know I am." Forte fidgeted uncomfortably and cleared her throat a little before explaining. "Kiel and Meg have told me numerous times that I can be… standoffish." Leon blinked and understanding came into his eyes. He gave a small shake of his head and chuckled.

"No. It's not because you're standoffish." He gave another chuckle as he turned back to the stove. Leon smirked as he poured some liquid into the two mugs and turned to make his way back towards Forte. "At least, not the way you're thinking."

"What do you mean?"

Leon gave her a mug and sat down next to her, looking overly amused. "You probably were thinking that I went to Dylas because I thought I had made a mistake or wanted to vent about something." Forte turned her head away from him haughtily and he took that as confirmation. "I asked him how he asked out Frey."

"What?" Forte's head snapped back in his direction and he calmly took a small sip of his tea. "You asked him… Why?"

"Simple, I knew that with your personality or standoffish-ness if you will, you wouldn't be the person who brought up further discussing our arrangement." Leon gave his mug a swirl and looked overly interested in his tea. "I asked Dylas how he asked out Frey to get an idea of how I could ask you to further our relationship. I thought I had a few more days to work out the details of how to ask you, but the horse-man is more observant than I give him credit for."

Forte didn't say anything, instead she looked blankly at Leon, not blinking and breathing very subtly. Leon set his mug down and poked the Knight in the shoulder, only to have her not move. "Forte?" He poked her again and she took a little deeper breath, but didn't move more than that. He picked up his fan than was on the table next to him and lightly tapped the top of her head with it.

Finally Forte blinked and seemed to begin seeing the Priest again. "You were… asking advice on how to ask me out?"

"Yes, and based on your reaction I should of threatened Dylas and waited a little longer to bring this up."

"What! No! I just- no!" Forte shook her head and looked away from Leon embarrassed. "No, I didn't mean to seem… I'm just… I'm happier than I expected to hear you say that." Forte felt her face heating up to a dangerous temperature and she took a shaky breath, not daring to look over at the former priest.

"I care about you Leon. With everything that has been happening with Kiel and Frey and the whole town... I've been thinking a lot about how I feel for everyone and how much I want to protect everyone." Forte paused, wondering if Leon would interject at all. As he remained silent she took another breath, and still not daring to look at him, "I want to protect the people I care for… and I care deeply about you…I want… I want to make things official."

Leon stayed quiet and Forte wondered if she'd been to forward with her words. Then, so softly she almost didn't feel it at first, a hand touched her chin and began to move her face towards the man's whose gaze she was avoiding. Leon leaned towards Forte and gently put his lips on hers, and she felt relief wash over her and began to kiss him back. Soon his other hand came up and softly brushed against her cheek. Butterfly's raced through Forte's veins at how tender e was being, it was far more tender than one would think the man capable of, and she began to lean into the man.

Leon seemed a little startled and pulled back a bit out of the kiss, just enough so that their lips were no longer touching. They stared at each other, both seeming surprised Forte had leaned in like she had as well. Finally Forte whispered, "Perhaps that was…"

"Perhaps..." Leon breathed, unsure of what to do. "Maybe we should stop." He didn't pull back at all, seeming more unsure and torn than Forte had ever seen him look. As she stared at him, she felt the wisdom of his words and thought about if Bado or Volkanon came in to check on them. Then, more strongly she remembered the feeling of his kiss, the weight of all that had been going on lift for that blissful moment and it being just them. Slowly, Forte moved her lips back onto Leon's and began their kiss all over again.

* * *

Kiel blinked as the world around him slowly came back into view. He felt puzzled as he looked around, not remembering where he was. It certainly wasn't his place or Bado's house. He sat up feeling disoriented when he heard creaking. He tensed as everything came back to him in a rush. He was in Frey's spare room at the castle. He listened closer and felt something in the pit of his stomach turn cold as the creaking came again, sounding much like it did on the stairway to Frey's storage area.

He slowly got out of his bed and grabbed a weapon from the rack Frey kept in this room and moved towards the doorway of the main room. He carefully peered out the open door to and felt a small sense of relief when he didn't see anything, only to have the cold come back when he noticed Frey's bed was empty. He came out of the room slowly and looked around for any sign of a burglar, Frey or his stalker. Kiel took a deep breath and moved to the stairway, noting the door was open, when he heard another noise coming from the small room just off of Frey's in the Palace kitchen.

Kiel made his way over and looked in and sighed in relief. He shook his head and walked into the room, and Vishnal glanced over at him surprised. "Sorry Kiel, did we wake you?" Frey turned around from where she was sitting at the counter and stared at the boy.

"Yes actually." He put the Sakura sword against the wall and took a seat by Frey. "I thought you were a Sech mercenary or my stalker." Kiel explained as the two looked at the sword surprised.

"You were coming to rescue me?" Frey said with a slight surprise. Kiel gave her a look that plainly said 'duh' and she looked taken back, "You… you and your sister really have me feeling so loved today. Can I hug you?"

"Uh, sure?" Kiel looked a little confused as Frey hugged him. He glanced at Vishnal for some sort of explanation and the butler just smiled at him. When Frey let go he looked at the small plate of cookies and milk between the two and raised an eyebrow. "Midnight snack?"

"oh, I'm sorry, would you like some warm milk to?" Vishnal asked. Seeing Kiel's hesitant face with it being Vishnal in the kitchen he gave a sad smile. "I can heat milk… and Frey made the cookies."

"Oh, sure then." Vishnal poured the milk and for a moment there was silence as they all ate their cookies and drank some milk. Then Kiel finally asked, "Why are you both up?"

"We couldn't sleep." Frey explained. "The castle…some nights it just gets too quiet." She gave a bittersweet smile. "Venti use to snore really loud and we got so used to it… it was confronting… now without it-"

"I see you're up to." Kiel felt his jaw drop a little as Clorica came into the kitchen. "Is there any milk for me?" Vishnal handed her a mug and Clorica gave a small yawn.

Frey looked back at Kiel. "The only person who can sleep through the silence is Volkanon."

"Clorica looked over surprised, seeing Kiel for the first time. "oh, you're up to? I thought you were awake from the quiet." She looked apologetically at Kiel, "Sorry, I'm normally the first person to wake up when Frey has nightmares. I guess you're a light sleeper too if she woke you up before me."

Kiel looked over at Frey surprised. "You get nightmares?"

Frey glared at Clorica and Vishnal looked a little nervously at his counterpart. "Actually we woke Kiel up."

Clorica looked surprised, then a little nervous at the look Frey was giving her. Vishnal looked over at Kiel and explained. "Frey sometimes relives battles. I'm sure you're use to that with Forte."

"Yeah. I guess… that makes sense." Kiel offered, hoping to diffuse the situation a little. "I don't get why you're mad Frey. Everyone gets bad dreams… you wake people up?" Kiel asked suddenly putting more pieces together. "how… how violent are these nightmares?"

Frey made an irritated noise and looked at Kiel angrily. "It's not like that! They're not violent, it's just." Frey coughed into her hand blushing a little. "I talk in my sleep and it wakes up Clorica."

"Who feels the need to wake you up?" Kiel asked worried. "Have you talked to Jones about the nightmares?" Kiel wished he hadn't asked as Frey sent a deathglare his way.

"I've tried to get her to." Vishnal said, redirecting Frey's glare. "She won't go."

"Drop it." Frey hissed. "Now." Clorica fidgeted a little and Frey looked over at her. "I haven't had a nightmare like that in a while and I didn't want people to worry about something that I can't help or do anything about." She turned to Kiel. "I really don't want people to worry over nothing, so please don't tell anyone. Not Forte, not Bado, not amber, not Volkanon and especially not Dylas." Frey looked a little worn down at the mention of her boyfriend's name. "Heaven knows I already make him worry about me enough without this added in."

Kiel nodded and Frey relaxed a little.

Clorica gave a small yawn and grabbed a cookie. "Who made these?"

"Frey." Kiel offered. Clorica gave a hum of contentment and began to eat it.

"What if I had made them?"

"They'd b a lot blacker."

"Princess!"

A little later everyone put the dishes in the sink with Vishnal shooing Kiel and Frey out when they tried to help clean. "You two go to bed. We wouldn't be doing our jobs correctly if we allowed our Princess and our guest to do our jobs. You both have a big day tomorrow so go get some rest." Frey yawned a little and seemed to decide against arguing with Vishnal and made her way back to her bedroom with Kiel following close behind. When she got in her main room she stopped and looked over at the door leading to her upstairs confused.

"Hey Kiel, did you go upstairs when you were trying to save me?"

"No. I was going to but then you were moving around in the kitchen so I didn't."

Frey gave a small sigh of relief and looked at him good naturedly. "Okay. I thought I was going crazy." She shut the door and gave a tired laugh. "I have a window jammed up there and birds sometimes fly in through the opening so I try and keep this door closed. "

"Wait, Frey… I didn't open it." She stopped and looked over at Kiel confused. "I thought you did."


	6. Chapter 6

"Honey~Honey~honey!" Amber sang softly as she arranged the flowers in the shop. "I love honey~Give me honey!" She giggled slightly as she picked up the fresh pinkcat flowers, "Summer's here!" She giggled again, then stopped as she realized something. "Oh no! Winter's a season closer!"

"But still a long way off." The butterfly girl turned around and saw Dylas looking at her seriously.

"Oh! Good morning Dylas!" She grabbed a moondrop flower and handed it to him happily. "Are you here for more flowers for Frey?" She felt a little mischievous as Dylas's cheeks turned bright red and he glowered at.

"N-No!" He coughed into his hand and cleared his throat slightly before he looked back at her, still blushing. "I'm here about our plan."

Amber felt her grin slide off her face. "I see." She set the remaining flowers on the counter and faced the much taller man. "I'm not sure what we can do. I think...I think I may have hit a dead end."

"How so."

"I found the door."

"..." Dylas now looked taken aback. "The door?" The girl nodded glumly. "So there is an actual door to the forest?" Again she nodded. "Is there anyway to open it?"

"I dunno. I was told I wasn't qualified."

"You weren't qualified? How?"

The girl shrugged and absentmindedly began to rearrange one of the bouquets near her. "I'm not sure. You have to be determined to open it, proof that you can changed the world, ya' know?" She sighed and gave a small sad smile. "They said mine wasn't the right kind, so I couldn't open it."

Dylas stared at the flowers Amber had earlier placed on the counter, processing the new information. Finally he gave a small huff and looked dejected. "I can't even picture it...I can't believe there might not be anything I can do."

"Not true." Dylas looked over at Amber and she looked up at him determinedly. "We can't think there's nothing we can do, it's just not this. We just need to find another way in, or maybe someone else can open the door."

Dylas looked at her and nodded. "You're right. Moping isn't going to get us anywhere. We'll just go talk to Arthur after the festival and see if he has any ideas."

"Yeah! Let's ask him!" Amber smiled and hummed happily at Dylas's new energy.

"Ask who what?" Both turned and saw Frey and Kiel coming into the shop.

"Ask-uh," Dylas looked at his girlfriend, who as looking at him expectantly. "Well, I was going to ask, um someone about, erm."

"He was gonna ask Jones if he had any idea on what to get you for your anniversary!" Amber piped in looking excited. "Yeah! Isn't it three years?" Dylas shot Amber a grateful look, and looked back at Frey, who seemed to be beaming happily.

"Aw Dally! You're so sweet!"She reached up to ruffle his hair, and then noticing she wasn't quite tall enough, hugged him around his middle instead. "I forgot how fast the eighth is coming up!"

Dylas looked down a little annoyed. "Yeah, too bad our anniversary is the sixth."

"Eh?" Frey let go and looked up at Dylas shocked. "The sixth?" She pulled out a small calendar book from her pocket and looked, her face becoming bright red after a moment. "What do you know."

Amber looked over at Kiel and both had to look away, trying not to laugh at the predicament Frey now found herself in. "So," Amber asked, still not looking at Kiel. "Whatcha need?"

"We, um," Kiel coughed into his hand, ignoring the pleading glance Frey sent him while Dylas haughtily looked at her, "We need some more blue charms and fireflowers for the decorations at the lake."

"Yes!" Frey interjected, moving away from her glaring boyfriend and moving towards Amber. "Illuminata was supposed to bring some over this morning, but she never did."

"...Huh?" Amber looked a little worried at Frey. "What do you mean? Lumi isn't already there?" At the confused looks the three where giving her, Amber gave a small whimper. "Lumi left last night to go see Bado about some new vases he was making for the festival. She said not to wait up, because she was going to make sure he finished them. When I woke up she wasn't here, so I just assumed that she left to go to the festival already."

Kiel looked at Amber nervously. "Amber, Frey and I made those vases yesterday. Bado said he needed to go get some material and asked Frey to finish them up." He looked at Frey, "Did Illuminata go with him?"

Frey glanced wearily at the butterfly girl waiting desperately for an answer. "I don't know. It's possible. I mean, no one is really leaving town without a buddy at the moment, and I know they're sparring partners, so maybe Illuminata went with him."

"Then why did she tell me she was helping with the vases?!"

Dylas jumped in, seeing tears forming in the corners of Amber's eyes and not wanting to be left as the one to deal with them, and suggested, "Maybe they were going to make more vases and needed to get more materials for them?"

Frey shot a grateful look at Dylas and nodded. "I'm sure that's it. Amber, we'll wait till around noon, and if they aren't back by then we'll send Leon and Dylas out to look for them, okay?"

Amber didn't look convinced but gave a small nod. Kiel looked at Frey nervously.

"I have a bad feeling Frey. First the intruder last night, then this?"

"SHHH!"

Dylas whipped around to face the two by the door."What intruder?!"

Frey held up her hands defensively as Dylas bore down on her. "We don't know for sure there was an intruder. Last night I woke up and made a snack with Vishnal as per normal. We woke Kiel up and he joined us. When we went back to bed I noticed my door to the upstairs was open and neither of us remembered opening it." Dylas opened his mouth to speak and Frey put a finger on his lips. "We check and no one was there and not a thing was out of place. I let Vishnal know, he woke up Volkanon who also checked. We couldn't find any evidence of an intruder so that may not even be a thing. "

"Except for the fact that I heard creaking when I woke up and originally thought it was an intruder." Kiel pointed out. Dylas looked over at him.

"Does your sister know about this?"

"Yeah, we already talked about it and discussed the possibility of who it could be and if we should go on with our original plan. She was going to look around the castle herself this morning before going to the festival. "

"And?"

Frey sighed. "She was looking around when I left to finish setting up the festival. We also decided to go ahead with trying to catch Kiel's stalker." At Dylas's still concerned face she added, "We have no reason to believe that I didn't open the door myself last night and forget, or that the creaking Kiel heard wasn't the castle settling. There was no sign of anyone coming in, so for now life will just go on as planned." "And Lumi?" Amber asked.

"We'll wait until noon. If anything is going to happen it will happen by then." Amber nodded and Frey looked at Dylas. "I know your worried Pony-boy, but nothing's wrong." She grabbed his hand and smiled at him assuringly. "I can handle this, okay?"

"...Fine." Dylas sighed and looked at her angrily. "But if you're hurt or dead on our anniversary you're going to regret it."

"...Dally, did you make a joke?" He glared and she giggled a little. "Aw, Dally." He reached over and ruffled her hair. "Hey! My hair!"

"That's for forgetting the day." Frey stuck her tongue out at him and he smirked. "Come on, Pete's not going to catch himself."

Amber looked at the horse man confused, then turned to Kiel, "Who's Pete?"

* * *

"Milady, I still think you should have picked the slinky semi see through suit!"

"Is that what you would have worn?" Dolce asked looking over at Pico amused. The ghost girl seemed oddly speechless and Meg gave a small laugh. Pico glanced over at her and smiled seeing the elf in a pale yellow suit, much like the blue bikini Dolce was wearing."You look great as well Meg!"

"Really?" Meg asked nervously. "I couldn't decided between this or my ribbon one this morning."

"You have that problem every year." Meg turned around and saw Forte coming up in a pale green and white suit. Dolce and Meg both looked a little shocked at the two piece bikini Forte was wearing, showing off more of her skin than the Knight was usually comfortable with. Seeing their surprised faces she looked behind herself worried, grabbing at the sword she was still carrying on her waist. "What? Is something wrong?"

"No! No! It's not that!" Meg said hastily. "It's just-"

"MEOW!" Pico interjected. "You have legs!"

Forte blushed a brilliant shade of hot pink and looked at the ghost girl embarrassed. "Is that necessary?"

"Wow, you look nice Forte!" Forte turned bright red as she turned around and saw Clorica coming towards her with a sleepy smile. The other girls stared at Clorica's suit, which was a cream skirt with a blue sailor crop top. "I wish I had your figure."

"Yes, yes!" Xiao Pai agreed looking dejectedly down at her short and top combo. "I too wish I looked like you or mama... it is just a dream though yes?"

"err..." Forte looked away and cleared her throat a little and looked around expectantly. "Have any of you seen Frey or Kiel? I have to inform Frey that I will need to talk with her after the festival and I know they were supposed to be coming together."

Meg and Dolce's eyes light up in understanding at the question. They were all supposed to act as if they thought the danger was past and that the whole guard was unnecessary, just incase Pete was listening. "No, not yet."

"Is it a good idea for him to be Kiel to be with Frey? Today she is very busy, yes?" Xiao Pai looked nervously, not actually being in on the plan herself.

Forte gave a small tut and looked at the girl. "Frey thought it would be best if they were each others' guard for awhile. She seems to think I will overwork myself or be too suffocating if I'm always his guard."

"Hmm, that is a valid point." Dolce easily slid in. "I don't really think Kiel's attacker will try again anytime soon. What's the point if we're all on alert already waiting for him? It was foolish he even tried to attack after we found him last time. I doubt he'll be that foolish again." Meg nodded. "Yeah, we probably won't need to worry for at least a couple of months, or maybe even years if he keeps up his old pattern,"

Xiao felt her jaw go a little slack in shock as she looked at the other three. Forte nodded hesitantly. "I suppose, that may be true... but we would be foolish to fully drop our guard completely." The two older girls nodded and Forte redirected her gaze at Xaio Pai.

"How is Doug doing? I'm told you're helping him until he is healed?"

"Yes, Yes!" Xaio nodded, changing subjects easily enough. "He is having trouble with stocking and knives, so I am trying to be of help to him!" She looked over her shoulder and pursed her lips slightly. "He is actually to be coming here soon."

Meg and Pico looked at each other and shared a slight smile with each other. "That sounds like a good plan Xiao Pai." Dolce said smiling warmly at the girl. "And I'm sure he'll like seeing you in that cute orange suit."

"No, no, no! It is not like that!" She blushed red and waved her hands. "He surely won't! I am not like mama, yes?!" The three girls giggled a little and Xiao sighed. "I am most sure Doug does not view me that way."

"Jeez, are all of you blind?" Pico said with a small huff of air.

"Care to explain?"

"Not at the moment Milady."

"Aw man!" The group turned and saw the aforementioned dwarf walking across the bridge into the lake area in his normal attire. "This bites not being able to swim."

"I'm sure, but it would be worse if you got your stitches wet." Dolce pointed out instead of greeting him.

"Cheer up Doug, we will have a picnic later on the beach! It will be fun, yes?" Xiao asked smiling at him happily. Doug sighed, but nodded in agreement, a very slight tint to his cheeks just noticeable. "Also Amber is bringing something called Elvish buffamoo shoes, which will be played on sand and not the water!"

Doug looked over at her with a small twinkle in his eyes. "I think you mean elvish horse shoes."

"Oh."

"Doug?" The red haired dwarf looked over at Forte, and did a small double take at the feminine looking Knight. "Did you see Frey and Kiel on your way here?"

"Yeah, they were chatting with Horse-face about something." He said still looking a little shocked.

"Ah, I see." Forte gave a nod of understanding, unaware of Doug's gaze. Dolce noticed and smacked him. "Do you know what they were chatting about?"

"I think he was going to go check on something for her with Volkanon." Dougsaid rubbing his head. "I didn't hear to much more because I got yelled out for calling out _Hey lover boy_ right after." The girls looked at him unamused and he looked confused. "What?"

"Between you and Leon picking on Dylas it really isn't surprising how shy he gets about his and Frey's relationship." Meg pouted. "At this rate it will be even longer before Dolly and I get to design a wedding dress." Dolce seemed to pout a little at the mention of this, but Doug shook his head.

"Nah, I give it a year at most." The dwarf smiled cockily. "Dylas is a stand-up guy and once he realizes how much he means to Frey he'll ask her."

Forte raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean how much she means to him?"

Doug shook his head. "I think he has that part figured out already. He just thinks Frey isn't ready yet."

"...And here you say you don't make a habit of talking personal things with him." Meg observed with a small smirk of her own.

"SHUDDUP!"

"Aw," the all turned and saw Frey in her blue warrior dress and Kiel in his green swim trunks. "Don't tell me I missed picking on Doug already!"

"...You know Frey, you really have a mean streak."

* * *

Illuminata looked over at the dwarf crouched next to her in the bushes. His face was set in hard battle lines as he looked forward, his hand clenching his Snow Crown tightly. Illuminata gave a small hum and he glanced over and read something on her face. He gave a curt nod and the elf sighed. She really hoped he remembered to take Pete alive.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked out at the pervert as he looked at the mansion in front of him. It figured he would think to go through that to get to the lake. Illuminata felt like kicking herself for not thinking about it. If it hadn't been for Raven noticing him while on the road she would of have gone along with the thought that he would attack from in town. So few people knew about the bridge from Obsidian Mansion that they had never thought about including it in their battle plan.

Bado seemed to sense the new tension rolling off his companion and he reached over and pushed her hat down a little to remind her to keep calm. She took a breath and stared at the man in front of her. They needed to get him this time. That was that. She pulled out the burning sword Bado had given her and watched as Pete checked his watch. She felt a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Bado seemed to notice this too and shot a weary look her way and motioned his head just enough that Illuminata looked at him. His face was easy to read. Get the creep now, before whatever he was waiting for happened. She nodded at him and quietly he began to edge away from her towards, more towards the man's left side.

Illuminata made a small wish that they could get him before he managed to escape again. Bado nodded at her from his new position and Illuminata took a deep breath. Then, with as much speed s she could muster, she flew out of her hiding spot towards the man in front of her.

The guy looked over and saw her just in time to parry the blow with one of his swords. Bado rushed from his other side and he dodge, allowing for Illuminata to lunge at him. He quickly dodged, but missed Bado's swing, catching his arm.

"Not you again!"

"Never try to escape the great detective!" Illuminata said with a smirk as she attacked his side. His eyes grew wide and he dodged her attack, then Bado's counter, almost dancing out of the way. He growled and swung at Bado, who just jumped back enough so his stomach wasn't cut open. Pete then turned towards Illuminata, trying to get her with his other blade. She managed to raise her shield in time to stop it and knock him back. Bado moved so he was coming at him quickly and while he tried to block, she raced forward and as hard as she could hit him on the head with the hilt of her sword. Right before she made contact though, he swung and managed to catch her leg. Both fell to the ground at the same time.

Bado raced over and kicked the pervert with his toe, satisfied when he didn't move. He glanced at Illuminata and she winced up at him. "He barely got me. But just enough that we may have a slow walk back."

"You can walk?"

"I think so." She pushed her sword into the ground and used that to steady herself as she got up. "Yeah, I'll just use my sword like a walking stick, I'll be fine."

Bado glanced nervously at her then looked at the man unconscious. "I really don't want to have to carry him back."

"Drag him by his ankle then." Lumi suggested. The man sent an amused look her way before reaching over to tie up the man. "Element of surprise works every time."

"How would you know?" Bado asked lazily. "You never caught someone before."

"HEY!" Illuminata glared at the man "I have so! I've solved a ton of cases!... Just not really big ones as of late." Bado chuckled softly and threw the guy over his back. "Let's get Pete to Volkanon and Dylas, ...I wonder though..." She glanced at the mansion. "Do you think he was waiting for something?"

Bado checked his own watch, then clicked his tongue. "Yeah, I bet it was the start of the festival. It should be getting into full swing soon. Frey was right." Bado looked ahead. "He probably would have gone through here, seen Kiel and Frey's argument and then followed Kiel to the Forest and right to Volkanon and Dylas."

"Or he would have waited until Frey and Kiel were near the bridge, grabbed Kiel and either have gone through the mansion or used his spell again."

"Presuming Frey and Forte didn't see him coming through first." Bado nodded. "Either way, I'm glad we found him before he could have even been close to Kiel."

"Agreed." Illuminata sighed and looked at the path ahead. "I think maybe we should just go to the town and send someone else to get the two yahoos from the forest. I can't fight monsters if I'm using my sword like a walking stick, you'll have to keep any monsters that attack us back."

"...Something tells me this isn't going to be a fun trek back."

* * *

"Ellie!" Illuminata looked up in time to see Amber racing towards her. Jones gave an impressed look to the elf as she opened her arms at just the right moment to catch Amber as she flung herself at her parental figure. "Don't ever scare me like that again!"

"Hehehe, don't worry Amber! Nothing can stop the great detective!" Illuminata ruffled Amber's hair affectionately and Nancy gave a small wistful sigh.

"Amber." Jones said getting the girl's attention. "I need you to move so I can finish stitching up Illuminata's leg." Amber nodded and moved over so she was sitting on the bed next to Ellie. Amber glanced over and noticed Bado sitting across from her getting his head bandaged up by Nancy.

"Where's Pete?"

"In the back room." Jones said gravely as he pulled the needle through Ellie's skin with his eyes closed. "We sent Blossom to get Forte."

"I know. Blossom told me you caught Pete, I saw her on my way over to the beach to check with Frey about Ellie and Bado."

Bado looked uncomfortably at Amber. "Forte knows I left?"

Nancy gave a small chuckle. "I think catching Kiel's stalker will get you off the hook for any work you may have missed." Bado didn't look overly sure, but asked. "So who are you going to send to get Dylas and Volkanon out of the forest?"

"I can do it!" Amber volunteered, jumping up from her seat. "I know that forest really well, so finding them should be a cinch!"

Jones nodded in agreement. "I think that would work just fine Amber." He kept his eyes tight as he finish off the suture and picked up a small roll of bandages next to him. Amber felt her mouth open a little at the perfect stitches he had done and the ease at which he rolled on the bandages.

"Jones, how can you do that with your eyes closed?"

Bado laughed and ruffled Amber's hair a little. "Kid, just don't question it." Amber shrugged and went to leave when Forte entered the clinic in her full armor. "Hello Forte! I'm going to go get Volkanon and Dylas! ... Where's Frey?"

Forte looked at Amber seriously. "She's at the festival still with Kiel." She looked over at Jones and explained. "I thought it best to leave Kiel away from Pete until we could arrange to have Pete taken to the capital. So I deemed it best he stay with Frey... and Frey to stay with Leon." The knight gave a sigh and looked at Amber. "When you get Volkanon and Dylas inform them we have Pete and... and that I need to speak to them about Frey's protection."

Bado looked at the Knight, who seemed to look more worn out than he had ever seen her in the many years she had known her. "Are you okay?"

"I just... I didn't sleep well." Forte said begrudgingly. She glanced over at Nancy. "Could you perhaps go retrieve Arthur? He wasn't at the festival when I as there or when I checked back after I changed." Nancy looked concerned at Forte, but nodded and begun to leave. Amber looked over Illuminata, who motioned to her to leave as well. Once they were out the door Bado looked sternly at the female Knight.

"Forte, what's going on?"

Forte looked over at the dwarf and then at Jones and Nancy. "We have a problem. Kiel's stalker may be taken care of, but Frey's isn't." Everyone blinked in surprise and Forte took a deep breath. "Last night Frey and Kiel were woken up by something. At the time Frey assumed it was the quiet of the castle and Kiel assumed it was Frey. However when they went back to bed the noticed a door open that shouldn't have been. Frey couldn't find anything out of place besides that, but told Volkanon and Vishnal to be safe, who in turn told me. I checked it out this morning and... in the upper apartment of Frey's room there was window that was open with some shingles knocked loose by it. I followed the loose shingles to find a drain pipe that was wrenched from the side of the castle and had footprints at the base."

The group was quiet as they all processed this information. Forte let them think it over for a minute before she continued. "I informed Frey, Kiel and Leon of my investigation before i came here and was planning on talking to Frey in more detail this after the festival and this whole Pete incident were done."

Illuminta fidgeted uneasily in her seat. "Forte? What did the footprints look like?"

Forte looked at the elf. "Why?"

"I was in Frey's fields when Pete first came here and I noticed some prints that didn't really seem like they matched anyone in town's. I thought they were Pete's but when I checked his shoes I noticed he wears a boot really similar to Vishnal's and that wouldn't have matched the print I saw at Serenity Fields."

Forte looked surprised at Illuminata's assessment, but she thought it over. "They were larger and overlapped each other a bit. I'm not really confident enough to guess the style of shoe that made it." Illuminata nodded understandingly then went to get up.

"Do you mind if I take a look?" Forte hesitated and Illuminata looked crossly back at the Knight. "Look, I know you guys don't think I am the great detective but I am. I'm the person who taught your dad to identify footprints. It's actually what I'm best at." Jones and Nancy looked at each other surprised, but Bado nodded in a thoughtful sort of way.

"I suppose I can take you over to them. Do you need a crutch or anything?" Jones held one out as an answer to Forte's question. "Jones, do you want to come with us?"

"No, unfortunately we still have another patient to attend to." Jones said with a small bit of disgust in his voice. "He should be waking up soon." He then glanced over at Bado. "Perhaps you should go with them though..."

Forte shook her head. "No, Bado should stay here with you just in case Pete tries something when he wakes up." Jones nodded went over to open the door for Forte and Illuminata. Right as the Knight stepped through a loud scream came sounding out from just over the bridge.

* * *

Leon raced behind Xiao Pai and tried to use her as a shield as Margaret raced towards him with murder in her eyes. He quickly pushed Xiao into the elf, causing both girls to fall backwards. As Meg fumbled to detangled herself and get up, Leon took a small step back with his hands held out in surrender.

"In my defense I was trying to get Doug with the water bucket."

The aforementioned dwarf snorted, "Twice in a row?"

Meg gave a small screech as she sprang to her feet and moved towards the former priest. "I'm going to kill you!" Leon raced backwards and tried to hide behind Dolce, but Pico pushed her out of the way. Meg grabbed her harp laying on her nearby towel and started using that as a weapon. Dolce looked over at Frey, who was helping Xiao Pai get a few twigs out of her hair. "Aren't you going to stop them?"

"No." Frey said simply as Kiel looked worriedly on. "I have a little too much self preservation for that." Doug laughed as he watched Leon avoid one blow after blow. Suddenly, Forte and Jones came racing into view. Leon noticed this and grabbed Forte to try his human shield once more. Meg yelped as she tried to stop her already in motion harp from hitting Forte. Forte on reflex swung her sword and cut the harp in two.

Everyone was silent as they looked at the piece of harp in Margaret's hand and the one on the ground. Jones looked around at everyone scattered about. "What was going on?" When no one answered, he directed his gave over to Dolce, who shrugged.

"Leon doused Meg with a bucket of water and she was after revenge."

Forte's head snappd up and she looked at everyone angrily. "That's what the screaming was! I thought someone had been attacked!" She rounded on Leon, who was still behind her. "How dare you try and use me as a shield! I could of killed Meg on battle instinct!" Leon looked a little abashed. "You are going to buy Margaret a new harp!" Forte turned her glare on Margaret. "You should have known better than to go at someone with a harp!"

"…Sorry…"

"AND YOU!" Frey jumped a little as Forte swung around to face her. "You're the person in charge of this festival! Why didn't you stop them!"

Frey offered uncertainly. "I was trying to keep Doug dry so he wouldn't wreck his stitches and keep others out of the line of fire."

"Plus she promised Dylas she wouldn't get hurt before they're anniversary."

"Yeah, and that too."

Forte glared at the girl a moment longer before nodding. "Fine, Frey you are in the clear." Forte turned back to Meg and Leon. "I think for causing the ruckus you did, you should both be the ones to clean up the decorations after the festival."

"…You know Forte, you can really be a mom sometimes." Margaret said with a slightly amused smile.

Leon looked at Meg annoyed. "You have no room to talk."

The others laughed and Forte gave a small sigh before looking over at Frey. "Since you are now free after the festival, would you meet me at Arthur's office after?" Frey gave a solemn nod and Forte sighed. "Good."

"What happened! What did I miss!" Illuminata came racing as fast as she could over the bridge in crutches. "Was it a mercenary?! Is everyone okay?!" As she looked around at everyone standing there she sighed. "Did Xiao Pai do this?"

"HEY!"

* * *

"And your sure it's the same print?" Volkanon asked Illuminata as they sat around Arthur's table discussing the intruder.

"Yes."

"Arg!" Frey threw her head on the table and Arthur reached over and moved her teacup out of harms way. "Why can't there just be a normal, non threatening day around here?"

Volkanon patted her back reassuringly as Dylas rubbed his eyes in an exasperated manner. He looked over at Forte and Arthur, who both looked as concerned as he felt. "So now what do we do? He got into the castle undetected twice! And those are only the times we know of!" He stopped and took a breath to calm himself. Frey rolled her head over and looked over at him apologetically.

Arthur sighed and took off his glasses to clean. "It would only be natural to move her living arrangements. She will stay at different places each night, just as Kiel did."

Illuminata looked uncertainly at Arthur. "Perhaps… Should we have someone disguise themselves as her as well?"

"No." Frey pulled her head fully off the table. "These are totally different circumstances. Kiel's stalker didn't want to hurt him, mine wants to kill me. Plus I have a farm to run. I have a pregnant Buffamoo who's due to have her calf anyday. I need to be by my farm. Not to mention all the important people come to look for me at the castle and we can't appear to be weak having me move. Others will try and take advantage of Venti's death."

"Not to mention," Dylas added, "that we already have a plan in place. If we alter it, then they will know we're on to them. It may cause extreme measures to be taken."

Volkanon made a thoughtful noise and looked around the table. "Dylas has a point. I suggest for now, we do as Dylas suggested, which is nothing."

"That's not what I meant!"

Volkanon shook his head at the horse man. "But it very well should be. Miss Frey has had a guard checking in on her everyday. They also accompany her outside of town. If we deviate from that pattern, it will look suspicious. For now, all the mercenary is doing is watching Frey. For all we know he may just be spying to see if he can overhear if she knows anything about their ludicrous idea of Ethelberd still being alive. Changing our approach now may cause suspicion and drastic measures. And if he is trying to capture our princess, obviously our guards have been delaying them. So for now, we will simply do what we have been doing." He scratched his bread then added, "Only perhaps we will add in a few extra check ins during the night."

Everyone looked over at Forte, who had her chin resting on her hands as she thought it over. "It's not ideal, but it will do for now. We will make no mention of this spy to anyone outside of this room, and we will simply watch to see if we can catch him. I do want to add a guard at night though. It wouldn't be outside of reason for us to do so with everything that has happened with Pete." Volkanon nodded gravely and Forte looked at the others. "Are we agreed?" Everyone nodded and Illuniata looked over at Frey.

"You know, you could also spend the night at someone else's house without raising suspicion. Like if you go to Meg's for a slumber party, or checking in on Forte and Kiel." The elf smirked, "Or spending the night with Dylas." Dylas chocked and Frey blushed bright red. "Just saying, it would pass."

"Er, yes. I suppose it would." Forte said looking at the elf in slight shock.

"I object to Miss Frey staying with Dylas!" Volkanon said looking scandalize. "I will not have our Princess staying with a young male-"

"with healthy young male needs." Illuminata interjected.

"Precisely!"

"I don't think you'd need to worry about that." Arthur said with a bright smile. "The walls are way too thin for them to get away with anything. I hear everything when they meet together for lunch when they're just talking."

Dylas hid his head in his hands and muttered something about "Kill me now." and Frey put her hand over her mouth, trying to hide how flushed her face was from embarrassment. Forte finally cleared her throat, causing all the attention to come back to her. "Tonight I will ask Meg to stay with Frey under the ruse of all that has happened with Pete. Tomorrow we can have Frey come over to the clinic, perhaps under the pretense of keeping an extra eye on Pete."

"I'll stay at the clinic tonight to do that." Dylas said. "We should have someone on that regularly anyway."

They all muttered in agreement and Forte sighed. "I suppose the matter is settled then." She got up and looked at fery. "I will go check on Margaret and Leon at the Lake and ask Meg to stay with you tonight." Frey nodded and Forte left.

"Illuminata, would you like some assistance walking home?" Volkanon asked the elf.

"yeah, that'd be nice." Illuminata grabbed her crutch and looked at Dylas. "You should probably walk Frey home. Keep her safe and be the dutiful boyfriend all at once." Dylas nodded and Frey looked over at them.

"Actually, Dally, can we talk first?" She then sent a glare over at Arthur. "Somewhere without being spied on?" Arthur look slightly abashed and scratched his face with his finger.

"Perhaps I will accompany you both." Frey glared at him as he followed Volkanon and Illuminata out the door, Once it closed behind him she looked over at Dylas.

"I'm sorry Dally."

Dylas looked at her surprised. "What for? I'm sorry Arthur was spying on us."

"No, not that. I'm sorry for all this." She gestured at the air frustrated. "I keep getting mixed up in everything and… I'm sorry. I just make you worry so much and… I don't mean to." She took a long breath before she continued. "You mean so much to me and I feel like I keep putting you in these odd situations, where you have to drop everything your doing so you can worry about me… it isn't fair to you and I-I just … I'm sorry."

"You're an idiot." Frey looked at him shocked and he looked at her seriously. "You did this stuff trying to save Venti, to save the town… me. It's not something you should say sorry for. Those other assholes who are doing this should." He put his hand on her cheek and looked her fiercely in the eye. "Don't blame yourself for this. Ever. None of this is your fault."

Frey touched the hand he had on her cheek and smiled up at him. "Thank you Dylas."

"You know I mean that about Ventuswill too." Frey nodded and leaned into his hand a little more. "Good. No more of you blaming yourself then." He moved a piece of hair out of her face. "I'd hate to have to be mad at you on our anniversary."

"On the sixth."

"On the sixth." Dylas felt his heart speed up as Frey looked at him lovingly.

"What would I do without you pony-boy?" She sat up in her seat and leaned forward and kissed his forehead. He felt his entire face go hot as Frey pulled back and smiled at him. "You should sit more often. I don't get to kiss your forehead enough." Dylas gave a small grunt in embarrassment and Frey giggled, then gave a small yawn. Dylas smirked over at her as she tried to cover up her mouth.

"Maybe I should walk you home now."


	7. Chapter 7

Dolce paced around the clinic as she thought. "So the only question now is, how do we give her a body." She stopped and looked over in the corner where Pico was floating. "And you're sure she can't simply become a ghost like you?"

Pico shrugged. "I'm really not sure. If she could have stayed as a ghost then she would have."

"…Perhaps she had no regrets?" Pico stayed quiet as Dolly looked over out the window, obviously distracted. "Not remaining here in our world means that there was nothing left to tie her here…"

"That…is possible." Pico agreed. Dolce looked out the window sadly and Pico added, "But we can't know for certain. Venti was in a very different position than the rest of mere mortals." Pico said with a slight giggle. Dolce looked over at Pico with a small glimmer of hope in her eyes. "I suppose you want to talk to figure out just how different, correct?"

"Yes."

Pico grinned widely at the girl she was haunting. "Well then, we already asked Leon what he remembers. Now we should focus on searching for any other possible ways." The bells on the clinic door jingled and both females turned to see Frey leading Vishnal in, his hand wrapped in a towel.

"Hello, is Jones in?" Frey asked as Dolce immediately began moving them towards an examination table.

"Really, all we need some burn ointment." Vishnal insisted.

"What happened?" Dolce asked as she unwrapped Vishnal's hand, then gasped in shock as she looked at the large angry red blisters that covered his entire palm. Pico floated over and looked at the hand before giving a low whistle.

"I think you may need more than burn ointment."

"It looks worse than it is, really." Dolce shot him an angry look and he shut his mouth. Dolce then directed her look at Frey, who seemed to jump at the ferocity of it.

"What happened?"

"I don't actually know. I came into the kitchen to find him holding his hand under cold water, insisting he didn't need help and a bunch of stuff about butlers being able to handle this sort of thing." Dolce looked over at Vishnal, who pouted slightly.

"Well, we do."

"Butlers also need to know when something is out of their expertise and ask for help." Dolce chided. "Volkanon still comes in when he's hurt to have Jones take care of him." Vishnal looked up slightly surprised and Dolce looked gravely at him. "Now I need to know how you got this burn so I can grab the right remedy."

Vishnal's face fell and he looked at his hand embarrassed. "I pulled a cake out of the oven and I lost my grip with the hot pad. When it was falling I tried to catch it on instinct."

"WHAT!" Frey looked at him exasperated. "You know you aren't allowed to practice cooking without me or Clorica present anymore! You have Xiao Pai's knack for accidents in the kitchen!"

Vishnal looked properly abashed as Dolce gave a slight smile of amusement. "I'll retrieve the remedy and bandages." She went over to the counter and Pico flew close to Vishnal looking suspicious .

"Who was the cake you were secretly baking for?"

"Wh-who said it was for someone!" Vishnal demanded looking nervous. "I-I just wanted to practice!"

"Then why hide the fact you were baking?" Pico suddenly gasped. "Was it for Clorica?! Do you like Clorica?!" Dolce felt herself involuntarily stop as what Pico said reached her ears.

"WHAT! NO! Clorica's like one of my sisters!"

"Then is it Frey?!" Before Vishnal could answer Pico floated higher up in excitement. "It is! OH! You naughty boy! Don't you know she's as good as taken!" Vishnal started to deny it and Pico flew close to his face. "Are you going to fight Dylas for her love?"

"What? No-"

"Are you going to fight to the death?!"

"NO!"

"Won't you being creamed by him postpone your butler dreams?!"

"N-…Well, actually yes on that one."

"So you admit you love Frey-OWWWW!" Pico flew back and hissed like a cat as Dolce calmly put away her talisman. Dolce shot her a look as she sat down next to Vishnal. Pico grumbled a little and crossed her arms. "He should still tell us who it was." Frey gave a small snort and Pico pouted. "I'm serious! Aren't you even a little curious Frey?"

"Nope. I know who it is."

"HOW!" Vishnal looked at Frey in shock and she smiled good naturally at him.

"Vishnal, you told me." Vishnal's mouth hung open as he stared in shock at Frey. "It was about a month ago." She offered as he still stared in shock. "We couldn't sleep and I was making pie and you jumped in saying you wanted to learn for-"

"AHHH!" Vishnal cut Frey off. "Yes, I remember now. Enough." Frey giggled and Dolce raised a curious eyebrow as she finished applying the first layer of medicine and put a piece of purple grass over it. "What's that for?"

"It will help to keep your wound cool and the blisters from bursting." Dolce said as she grabbed the bandages and started wrapping his hand. "It should be fine, but you'll need to come in tomorrow for me to change the wrappings and grass. It could scar if you don't."

"Ah, thank you very much!" Vishnal smiled brightly at Dolce and she felt a small blush creep onto her cheeks. "How much do I owe you?"

"One name."

Vishnal looked nervously at the floating female and Dolce rolled her eyes. "Nothing. It was a simple procedure."

"What! I can't not owe you anything! You wrapped it up so nice!" Vishnal looked scandalize and Dolce waved it off. "Well... if your sure..." Vishnal fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat. "It doesn't feel right to give you nothing though...oh! How about I bring you some lunch later! I'm going to head over to Porcoline's soon!"

"What- you really don't need to..." Dolce trailed off as Vishnal smiled happily at her.

"But I insist! Just tell me what you would like to eat and I'll bring it back."

Dolce looked flustered and Frey interjected, "She likes Flan."

"Flan it is!" Visnal stood up excitedly and bowed to the ladies. "Now if you bid me ado, I must go see about a flan!" He smiled widely and started to leave, when he stopped and looked at Frey. "Princess, are you meeting Forte later?"

"Yep, we're going to go over arrangements for transfer of Pete, who's actual name is Winster, and then I'm going with Dylas to Autumn river for some fishing." Vishnal nodded and continued out the door. Frey looked over at Dolce, who was glaring at her. "What?"

"I don't appreciate that."

"Why not? He's cute and you get Flan!"

* * *

Forte fidgeted slightly as she sat at the table, waiting for Kiel to come home for lunch. Leon noticed her hands wringing and gave a small chuckle as he placed his over here. "Relax."

"Are we sure we should tell Kiel yet? I mean, what if he reacts poorly?"

"I think the trouble with Kiel will more come from getting him not to exaggerate and tell everyone where getting married." Forte sputtered a little and Leon shrugged. "He does tend to exaggerate the truth. Just yesterday he told me Frey fell in love with Dylas's smell."

"D-Did he now?"

Leon laughed and gave Forte's hand a gentle squeeze. "We need to tell Kiel. It's only proper I give him notice about the claim I have on his sister's heart, before we actually do decide to get married someday." Forte gave a huff and Leon leaned in, smirking flirtatiously at her, "Unless you changed your mind about me?"

Forte gave a small growl and pushed his face away annoyed. "Honestly, would it kill you to be serious?"

Leon raised an eyebrow and smiled deviously. "I'll take that as a no then."

"Take what as a no?" Both turned and saw Kiel entering the house, looking mildly surprised at the two of them sitting there.

Forte gave an odd squeak and tried to jump up to meet Kiel. Leon reached out and pushed her back in her seat and smiled at Kiel. "Hello, do you mind if we talk to you Kiel?"

"Uh..." Kiel looked nervously at the man and his fidgety sister. "Sure." He came over to the table and sat down, not taking his eyes off his sister. "What's up?"

Forte cleared her throat and looked at er brother nervously. "Kiel... we, that is Leon and I, we um, well... we have something we need to tell you."

Kiel's face paled a little and leaned back against his chair. "Oh my God, are you pregnant?"

"WHAT!" "Wait, what?" Leon stared in shock at Kiel and then looked at Forte, who seemed to be at a lost for words as she stared at her little brother uncomprehendingly. "No, no she's not- why would you think that?"

Kiel looked angrily at Leon and gestured at the table. "Well, what am I suppose to think when my sister and her boyfriend ambush me at our house with _we have something to tell you_. Geez! Why would you scare me like that?!"

"Boyfriend- You knew?!" Forte exclaimed.

Kiel's face changed from angry to confused as he looked at the bewildered couple sitting across from him. "Was I not suppose to?"

As Forte opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, Leon composed himself and answered, "Well, we just... We were keeping it a secret until we were certain we wanted to be, er, official." Kiel looked over at the two a moment more before he gave small smile and hid his mouth in his hand.

H"A secret?" A small laugh slipped through his fingers and he looked away from the two, obviously amused. "Wow." His laugh came a little harder and Forte finally seemed to snap fully back into reality.

"What's so funny?"

Kiel snorted and tried to take a breath, when he looked back up at the two he pressed his lips together trying to keep in his laughter. After a moment more, he finally answered. "You both suck at secrets if that's what you guys were doing." He chuckled a little more and looked up happily at the two. "So Forte's not pregnant?"

"NO!"

"And you were just going to tell me you were dating?"

"Yes." Leon said with a small smile creeping onto his own face.

"Okay then." Kiel shook his head and sighed relieved. "Phew. Don't scare me like that again! I like you Leon, but I'd really have to kill you if did get her pregnant." He got up and smiled. "I'm gonna make some sandwiches for lunch. That good?"

"I think so."

"Um... sure." Kiel beamed at them and left to leave the two in silence. After a minute of them both looking at the doorway, Leon turned to Forte and smiled cheekily.

"And you were worried he'd react poorly."

* * *

Frey yawned a little as she and Dylas made their way back into town. Her boyfriend smiled at her slightly as he walked with her over to her entrance to the castle. "Didn't mean to keep you out so long." He looked down at the bucket he was carrying contently, "But we did manage a good haul."

Frey smiled sleepily and waved off his comment. "It's fine Dally, besides we weren't really out that late. It's only nine, I just didn't sleep well. Did you know Meg sings in her sleep?" Dylas chuckled and Frey frowned. "I'm not kidding. She just randomly hums notes throughout the night."

"Wait, seriously?"

"I can't make this up." Frey groaned and lowered her head. "I feel like an old lady. I mean, does Blossom even go to bed this early?" Dylas shrugged and Frey sighed. "Well, at least I get to sleep in my own bed tonight."

Dylas stopped walking and looked at Frey confused. "I thought you were staying with Forte tonight?"

Frey sighed, walked back and grabbed Dylas's arm, dragging him towards her room. "I was going to, but Forte said something about Kiel not feeling well, and how she didn't want me to catch whatever he has." Frey shrugged and stopped at her door, grabbing a small key from her pocket. "Vishnal, Clorica and Volkanon will all be checking in on me throughout the night. Besides," Frey looked up at Dylas seriously and lowered her voice. "We don't want them to know that we know that I'm being followed around. The best way to not let them catch on is to not change pattern too much. Staying at different places too many nights in a row is suspicious."

Dylas frowned as Frey's door opened and they began to head inside. "I know, but I can't help but worry about you. All I can think of is you being alone and someone ambushing you... I... you hurt and me not there to help..."

Frey looked around her room for a moment more before turning to look at her boyfriend and smiling at him. "You know Dally, you're a lot more open than you use to be. You say a lot more embarrassing things now."

"SHUDDUP! I'M BEING SERIOUS!"

Frey laughed a little at his bright pink face and reached up to put a comforting hand on his face. "Dally, I'll be that's happened the last few season just has everyone on edge. You guys forget I can handle myself just fine." Her eyes turned sad and she looked a bit lost. "Even if you and the other Guardians think I can't."

"Frey..."

"I know you'll say I'm being stupid... but I feel like your all hiding something from me." Frey move towards her desk in the corner of the room and ran her hand along it distractedly. "It's probably just my own nerves with everything that happened recently... but I just feel..." She trailed off moved towards her bed. "I don't know Dally... If there was something you needed help with none of you would keep it from me... would you?"

Dylas looked a little guilty as Frey sat down on her bed and looked up at him expectantly. "Frey... You have so much on your plate right now. Everything seems to be happening to you... it always has." He sat next to her and looked down at his feet. "Maybe we don't want to always have to rely on you."

"But what if I could help?"

"What if you don't need to?" Dylas looked at her seriously. "You don't have to do everything."

Frey looked a little hurt, but nodded. "Fine."

Dylas made a frustrated noise. "I didn't mean it like that Frey." Frey didn't look back at him and he groaned. "Frey!"

"No, no. I understand- I." Frey jumped a little and her eyes went wide. "I-I just... wanted to know. "She sent a paniced look at Dylas and then glanced down at the ground real quick. Dylas stared at Frey worried and glanced down as well, but didn't notice anything. Frey cleared her throat a little and stared to motion with her hands.

"Dylas, I'm really tired." Her hands pointed down and then she made a grabbing motion. "Do you think we could talk more about this later?" Dylas looked confused and Frey made a distressed face. "I know you're worried about me." She made a thumbs up. "But I'm fine." Thumbs down. "I'm in no danger." Dylas bristled and looked down angrily. "Vishnal and Volkanon are in the castle and they'll be checking in on me." She made a quick shooing gesture at Dylas.

His eyes burned and Frey took a breath. "Dylas. Check in with Vishnal and Volkanon if you aren't sure." She made a harder motion and then mouthed. _go. please?_

"Frey." He looked at her angrily. "I...Don't want to leave it like this."

"Dylas, I'm fine."

"Oh, why bother hiding?" Frey and Dylas both jumped as a woman came out from the entry way to her basement. She had dark red hair in a low ponytail hung over her shoulder and wearing red and gold armor. "Now stay quiet both of you or else things will get ugly. Denis, keep hold of her ankle so she doesn't squirm too much."

Dylas growled a little and went to stand up. "Don't think on it or her foot will come off." Dylas froze and stared down the woman. "Now then, I have a few questions for you, my dear." Frey glowered at the woman as she put her hand on the battle axe at her side. "First things first. Where is the dwarf?"

* * *

**PLOT TWIST!**

But which dwarf? hmmmmmmmmm.

Sorry this took so ridiculously long. I kept rewriting the bottom part and other stuff got in way. Any whos. Hope it was worth the wait.

OH! Also, for being so wonderfully patient with me and for being such a beautiful audience I made something else for you. Go to youtube and type in

" FreyXDylas Clarity " no spaces with the FreyXDylas or it won't come up. I may do other editing to it later when my classes are done this week, but we shall see.


	8. Chapter 8

"First things first. Where is the dwarf?"

Frey and Dylas both looked towards each other in surprise then glanced back at the woman. Seeing her still staring at Frey expectantly, Frey bit her lip and then opened her mouth to speak. "The dwarf?"

"Did I stutter?" The woman asked, her eyes narrowing. "Where is the dwarf?"

"Um..." Frey glanced at her boyfriend, who seemed just as baffled as she did. "There's quite a few in town. Could you be more specific?" Frey hissed in pain a second later as the person holding her ankle squeezed.

"Don't play games _princess."_ The mercenary said mockingly. "Where is he? Where is the villainous swine who betrayed us?!" Frey and Dylas both glared in understanding, Dylas clenching his fists as well. "He is to be taken back to Sech Empire for a traitors trial!"

"No, he's not." Frey growled at the woman. "Doug is a citizen of Selphia, who was tricked into helping the Sechs. If anyone gets to hold a trial it would be Norad. However, the nation has declined to do so. The Sech Army has no claim to him!"

The woman came closer and glared down at the girl sitting on the bed. "He will answer for his part in the disappearance of our King." She then reached up and grabbed one of Frey's ponytails, pulling it so Frey had to look her in the eye. Dylas reached forward and the woman used her other hand to hold up her axe threateningly. "Though if you will tell us exactly what Norad has done to him, I may leave and forget the dwarf's treachery."

"He died. He tried to become a God and used up all the runes in his body when trying to fight me and Ventuswill." Frey answered icily. "He killed both himself and the Native Dragon."

The woman mercenary pulled sharply and Frey winced a bit, but didn't change her expression besides that. "You lie! Lord Ethelberd would never have been taken out by the likes of you." She released Frey's hair and backed up a bit looking at the two in front of her. "We will find out the truth! The Princess and one of the Guardians should fetch a high enough price for Norad's King to start being honest with us." She pointed her axe at Dylas and called out. "Dennis come out. We'll take these two with us and come back for the traitor."

The red head reached forward to pull something out of her pocket and Frey felt the person let go of her ankle. Frey leapt up and pounced at the woman, tackling her to the floor. Dylas sprang up and turned to see a black haired man crawling out from under Frey's bed and kicked at his face. The man just managed to block Dylas's foot with his face, but missed the second kick. Dylas turned back and looked at Frey as she and the woman wrestled for control on the floor.

Frey was trying to choke the woman and avoid the ax still in her hand. Dylas raced forward to help but fell forward as Dennis grabbed his ankle, causing him to fall down. He rolled over and saw the male standing over him sword raised. Dylas rolled out of the way as the sword came crashing down where he had been. Dylas leapt to his feet and dodged another swing of the man's sword. He growled, but noted he was taller and slightly faster than this man. As long as he kept from getting hit, he could knock him out with a punch easily.

Frey held the woman's ax laden hand down and tried to choke her with her other one, as the red head tried to do the same to her. Frey ended up having to let go of her choke and protect her own neck, as the woman's arms were slightly longer than hers. The woman tried to lift Frey off of her and get Frey to let go of the axe arm, but Frey kept a death grip on the arm. Frey breathed heavily as she tried to keep the hand off of her neck, thanking her lucky stars she was stronger than the woman under her. Frey concentrated and began to pin the other woman's arm down on the ground when she heard a small grunt from Dylas.

Worriedly Frey glanced over to where Dylas was engaged with the other assailant, and saw him dodging sword blow after sword blow, a small cut on his cheek. The Sech mercenary took advantage of Frey's momentary laps in concentration and used all her weight and strength to roll Frey under her. Frey yelped as the ax caught her arm, then choked as the axe handle was pushed against her throat. The woman pushed down on the handle as hard as she could and Frey tried to push the thing off of her, fighting for breath.

Dylas got close enough to the black haired man to punch him backwards and turned around to see Frey's predicament. He raced forward, grabbed the mercenary's shoulders and yanked her back and threw her over to the side. Frey gasped for air and Dylas turned to see both the red headed mercenary and the one called Dennis getting up and moving towards them. Frey reached up and grabbed his arm and shouted. "Epacse!" A blue light swirled around them, and the scenery changed to the green forest right outside the town's entrance.

Dylas immediately turned around and knelt down next to Frey, who was massaging her throat with her uninjured arm. "Are you okay?" He asked grabbing her arm and inspecting the cut.

"Yeah." Frey coughed slightly, "What a-about you?"

"Fine." he ripped the bottom of his shirt and began to bandage up Frey's arm. "This looks pretty superficial. You should be okay."  
"Yeah." Frey took a few more deep breaths, and looked at Dylas's face. The new cut had made an X shape over his old scar. She looked him over and also noticed a small red patch seeping through his pants on his leg. "Dally!" She reached forward and touched it. Dylas flinched, but didn't make any noise. "You're leg!"

"That's superficial too. I feel it well enough to know it's barely bleeding."

Frey looked at the cut a moment longer and her face began to morph into an angry glower. "I told you to go get help!" Dylas looked up in surprise and Frey steamed, "I told you to go get Volkanon and Vishnal!"

"I wasn't about to leave you alone knowing you were in danger!" Dylas retorted just as angrily. "If I hadn't been there what was to stop the merc from drugging you and just whisking you away?!"

"You got hurt!" Frey bellowed back.

"So did you!" Dylas countered. "Do you have any idea how hard it is with you? You'll go cliff diving in order to save a feather, but the moment someone tries to protect you, you go berserk!" Frey angrily went to interrupt, but Dylas kept talking. "You go off trying to save the Guardians, save Ventuswill, save the town, but you won't let us help you! Frey you can't do everything! You need to let me help! Why won't you let me just protect you for once?!"

"Because I can't lose you!" Dylas stopped as Frey angrily cried. "I can't lose you Dally! I've already lost Ventuswill, I've lost a family I can't remember and kinsmen I never met- I can't loose anything else! Least of all you! You can't ask me to let you put yourself in danger and put you at risk for dying! You can't ask me to lose the most important person in my life!"

Dylas stared at Frey as the tears fell down her glaring face. He reached down and grabbed her face and pulled it towards him, slamming their lips together urgently. Frey bristled for a moment, then embraced him, tears still falling.

Dylas pulled away and grabbed Frey's chin, keeping her eyes on him. "You can't ask me to lose the most important thing either. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to try to protect you. I won't let myself lose the only thing I've ever really had."

Frey took a shaky breath. "Dylas..." She coughed a little and wiped her eyes with her uninjured arm. "We'll get more into this later." She started to get up and looked at the town. "We need to find Doug and Forte and get everything secured before those two leave or try to come back."

Dylas nodded and stood up. "Right, but once we find Doug, you and him are going to the mansion and hiding out until we capture those two." Frey whipped around to argue, but Dylas glared down at the girl. "Look, be mad at me later, but for now you two are their top targets and Doug can't wield a sword yet. You need to keep yourself and him safe."

Frey took a shaky breath and agreed, "Fine, but you better be just as alive as me in two days on our anniversary, or I will kill you!"

Dylas gave a small smile. "Alright." He turned to go into town when Frey grabbed his arm. He turned to look at her and she stood on her toes in order to peck him on the lips.

"For good luck." She said as she pulled back and moved ahead determinedly. Dylas stared at her for a moment then followed her into the town square. "Forte is usually at home or at the Bathhouse this time of day." Frey said as she scanned the small crowd of people and began to head towards the aforementioned house. "We'll check there first and get as many of the townspeople alerted as possible."

"Right." Dylas scanned the crowd looking for the two mercenaries. "I have a feeling they aren't planning on leaving without either you or Doug. not when they've waited this long to show their hand."

"Yeah. Frey turned the corner and froze as she saw Amber and Kiel talking ahead of them. Dylas almost ran into her but stopped just in time. He followed Frey's gaze and she looked up at him worried.

"She talked about grabbing you too. What if they tries to get the other guardians instead of me to make her _price?_" Dylas blinked down at her then both raced forward. Frey grabbed Amber's shoulder and spun the young girl round to look at her. "Amber, listen to me! You and Kiel need to leave town and head to the forest now! Hide there until someone comes and gets you."

"Frey?" Kiel looked over at the two surprised. "Did Pete escape?"

"No." Frey looked at Kiel and her eyes focused in on the sword the boy had taken to carrying with him. "There is a mercenary who attacked me and Dylas. They're after Me, Doug or the Guardians, they don't care who they grab."

Kiel went ridged as he looked at the butterfly girl, who was staring in horror at the wounds on Frey and Dylas. He grabbed Amber's hand and started towards the entrance. "I'll keep us safe Frey, no worries!"

Frey sighed and moved forward. "That's the most we can do right now."

"I know." Dylas followed her and looked towards the clinic. "We've got to warn everyone before they can get to anyone."

"HIYA!"

Dylas grabbed Frey on reflex and threw themselves towards the side of the road as a battle axe swung at the air where they had been standing. Both turned and saw the woman glaring daggers at the both of them as tourists took off screaming.

"Will you come the easy way or the hard way?"

Dylas glanced down at Frey and noticed that neither of them had thought to grab a weapon yet. Glaring at the woman he grabbed Frey's arm and dashed down the street as fast as he could.

"The hard way it is!" She screeched and Dylas turned, scooped up Frey and kept running, his hurt leg burning.

"Erif Llab!" Frey hollered as she forced her hand out behind Dylas and shot a spell at the woman. Frey smirked slightly as it caught the woman's arm and Dylas kept racing. "You forgot about magic, didn't you?"

"More like I was thinking there's only one here and fighting using just magic is way too tiring when we may need to track down the other!" He shot back as he rounded a corner and raced towards the bathhouse.

* * *

Xiao Pai looked next to her where Doug was sitting playing Solitaire while she waited at the counter. "Sorry I am not of better company to be around."

Doug smiled up at her and waved it off. "You're just fine to be around. I just wish there was more to do today so I could actually help you out like you've been helping me."

Xiao Pai sighed and looked at the nearly empty Bathhouse sadly. "It would seem to be very quiet today, yes?"

"Yeah, but it's about closing time. Do you want to go get some food after this?" Doug asked stretching his arm that wasn't in a sling.

"Yes, yes!" Xiao Pai agreed. "I am most ready for dinner!"

Doug grinned happily and moved a card on his game. "Sweet! It will be my treat!" He then looked at Xiao Pai and flushed pink. "Just so, you know, I can pay you back a little better!"

Xiao giggled and ruffled the dwarf's hair affectionately. "You do not need to try and pay me back. I enjoy helping a friend like you!"

"A friend like me?" Doug asked carefully.

"Yes, yes! One who is so great a person!" Xiao Pai blushed slightly and looked towards the door. "Perhaps we could close early tonight, yes? It does not seem more customers will come."

Doug smiled brightly and began to pick up his cards. "Awesome! Do you want me to go tell Leon? I think he slipped into the bath a few minutes ago."

"No, that is fine." Xiao waved it off as she put a small sign on the desk reading _closed_. "He lives here, yes. So he may use baths whenever he feels as such."

Doug shrugged and went to pick up one of the axes he had been helping Xiao sharpen earlier. "You want this back in the weapons rack or on the display over there?"

Xiao Pai looked over the axe and took it from Doug. "Perhaps this will go as placeholder in display? My father's axe normally rests there when he visits."

"Oh." Doug watched as Xiao turned the corner to where the display was in the hallway leading to the upstairs. He turned around and almost fell backwards as he saw a man with jet black glaring at him from across the desk. "Ah, sorry sir, the baths just closed, or do you want a room for the night?"

The man snarled and pointed a sword at Doug, "I want you traitor responsibly for the fall of Lord Ethelberd!" Doug froze as the man slowly circled around the desk. He noticed Xiao coming back down the stairs, stopping and racing the back up the stairs as she saw the man. "I want the swine who helped the enemy after all we did to free him for Norad influence!"

Doug's gaze hardened as he stared down the man, now standing across from him. "You mean the people who killed my entire family?" Doug didn't move as the man came up next to him. The man merely sneered and grabbed Doug's good arm and twisted it so Doug fell forward onto the desk. He cried out in pain and then found himself being forced up.

"You're coming with me to answer for your crimes!"

"HIYA!" Doug barely had time to react as there was a gust of wind behind his back and the man let go of his arm howling, before he could turn to look someone else grabbed his free arm and pulled him backwards. Doug fell back and saw Leon and Xiao Pai standing protectively in front of him, glaring at the man now withering on the floor. Doug felt a little sick as he noticed the man holding a bleeding stump and a hand laying uselessly on the ground.

"Nice shot." Leon mentioned almost casually to Xiao Pai, who was wielding the axe she had just gone to put up as a display. Leon then whipped his own staff forward and smacked the man on the head, causing him to pass out.

Xiao turned around and looked at Doug concerned. "You are alright?"

"Y-yeah." He stared at the unconscious lump on the ground and swallowed. "He wanted me to go to the Sech Empire for a treason trial."

Leon gave a fox like growl as he picked up the bleeding arm and mumbled a spell to cauterize the wound. "He doesn't have that right. Only Norad could charge you, and you were acquitted of all crimes."

Doug looked at Xiao Pai as she fussed over him and made sure his sling was still intact. "You just chopped his hand off."

"Yes." Xiao said a little squeamishly. "When I swing an axe, it is the only time I am not clumsy." She kept looking at Doug and he realized she was trying hard not to look back at the gruesome scene behind her.

"Why haven't you been guarding Frey or Kiel?" Xiao Smiled weakly and got up, then offered a hand to help Doug off of the ground as well.

As Doug took it the doors burst open and Dylas raced in carrying Frey, both looking hurt and bloody. Seeing the scene around them Frey yelled to Leon, "There's another behind us!" Leon quickly got into a fight stance and charged towards the door as a woman in red armor came bursting into the room. Leon swung his staff like an axe at the woman, who moved her own axe up in time to parry the blow.

Dylas set Frey down,, then both went to help Leon, but Dylas's leg seemed to give out and he kneeled down on the ground. Frey made an odd noise and held her hand up pointing it towards the woman in red. "Erif Llab!" A ball of flame burst forward and the woman ducked out of the way. Leon pulled back and swung at the woman again, earth spikes flying towards her. She dodged and swung her axe towards Leon, but was blocked by Xiao Pai's own axe. The mercenary glared at the Chinese girl and tried to pull her axe back, but Xiao turned her's to the side and locked it in place. The woman shouted and pushed the axe forward, with Xiao Pai ducking down just in time to keep the axe's spiked top from jamming into her body.

Leon Charged forward again, this time water shooting out of his staff, and the woman swung her blade around stopping the water from hitting her, and sending Xiao's Axe flying across the room. Leon swung his staff like a bat and made contact with the woman's head, sending her backwards.

"Xiao Pai! Get them out of here!"

"Right!" She raced towards Doug, who was trying to help Dylas to his feet. Frey looked at the former Priest as the Mercenary charged back at him again. Frey raced forward and shot another fireball at the woman and managed to singe her leg while she was focused on Leon. The woman stumbled and Leon hit her arm with a resounding crack! The woman stumbled back, one arm hanging limply at her side.

"Give it up!" Leon called out angrily. The woman glared and looked over at her partner in the corner of the room. Her lip curled and she looked up once more and threw her axe towards Frey, and raced out of the Bathhouse. Frey dodged, then she and Leon both raced out after the woman.

"Frey!" Dylas called out. He tried to follow after, but his leg gave out again, and he fell forward, almost taking Xiao Pai and Doug down with him.

"Take it easy Bastard! You're in no shape to follow her!"

Dylas growled at the boy and tried to rush forward, but Xiao pinched his side, causing him to stop.

"Doug is right! We need to get you to the clinic. Frey will be fine, yes? Leon will keep her safe."

"That's even worse!" Dylas clenched his fists as the two looked up at him concerned. "These two wanted to get Frey and a Guardian in order to hold them for randsom for Ethelberd. Leon's the first Guardian. He'll be the biggest prize after Frey in their eyes!"

"Why did they attack Doug also then?"

Doug grew solemn as he tried to help Dylas walk the best he could with his one arm. "Two bird with one stone. Why make two trips for the ransom and traitor when you can get all with one go?" Doug growled angrily and looked back at the mass on the floor. "What do we do with that guy? We can't just leave him here? What if he wakes up and tries to join the fight? I mean, Leon used that spell to cauterize his arm, he could try and cause more of mess."

Xiao glanced back and sighed. "It seems I am to go to the clinic and you two will stay put? Together you make a whole person and he does not. you should be able to keep him in line, yes?" Doug and Dylas both looked at Xiao in shock and she went over and grabbed her axe. "Until I return you shall both sit on the couch."

Dylas and Doug watched her go and then looked at each other, and the couch on the opposite side of the room. As the hobbled less than gracefully over, Dylas looked back at the massacre scene behind him and the hand laying on the ground. "Did Xiao Pai do that?"

"Yeah, apparently she's a badass with a battle Axe."

* * *

Frey followed Leon as they chased after the fleeing woman, who despite being injured, was surprisingly fast. Frey felt herself pale as they followed her towards the restaurant, where Meg and Dolce where walking out.

"Get back inside!" Leon hollered and the two looked up in time to see the Mercenary charging towards them. Meg screamed in surprise, and Pico materialized to push them both out of the way. The woman kept running and grabbed a broadsword out of a traveler's hand as he tried to intervene. She knock the traveler back and whirled around to face Frey and Leon, both of whom were still charging.

She swung the blade at Leon, then Frey, blocking their blows and redirecting their movements expertly. Frey dodged her hand as their assailant tried to grab her, and danced away behind Leon. "Maybe I should go get a weapon."

"You think!" Leon said as he blocked a strike directed at Frey. Frey turned to race into the restaurant and wind blades hit her back, knocking her down and cutting her. Meg tried to come over and help the pair, but another blade sliced her hand and knocked her back. Leon looked at the woman who was smirking happily. He growled and swung his Staff at her like a spear, and she moved out of the way. She then swung the sword at him and Leon parried the blow, but the Mercenary pushed forward, forcing him to hold his staff like a sword and hold her back.

"What is going on!"

Leon felt his heart stop as he heard Forte's voice coming from the pathway next to the woman. Forte appeared a moment later with her Punisher Blade already drawn. As she came down the path she saw Leon and the woman standing off and rushed forward to assist. The mercenary smirked and Leon called out for Forte to stay back, but the Knight kept charging. Leon pushed against the woman harder and she suddenly jumped back, causing Leon to lose his balance. She then rushed Forte, trying to take the woman by surprise. Forte, however, remained steady and eluded the attack, whirling around in a flurry of blond hair and shining armor. The woman's eyes widened and she sprang forward again, only to have the Dragon Knight dodge once more, keeping her enemy at bay.

Leon came forward to help and the Mercenary moved to try and get Leon to run into Forte with his attack, but both had expected this and veered their attack towards their moving target. Forte hit the woman in her already burned leg and Leon made contact with the oman's head, once more knocking her down. Once she fell, Forte put her boot on the stolen blade and pointed her sword at the woman's neck.

"I said," Forte began, looking down frighteningly upon the woman, "What is going on?"

* * *

Frey hissed slightly as Dolce put an ointment on the cuts on her back. "Honestly, it's not that bad." Dolce chided. "They're not even deep."

"That doesn't mean that your treatment doesn't hurt." Frey pouted as Dolce rolled her eyes. Forte laughed slightly at her friend and gave a comforting smile to the green haired girl.

"My mother always said that if the treatment stung, that meant it was working."

"She wasn't wrong." Dolce agreed as she applied a bandage over the wounds. "The ointment is creating a chemical reaction that is turning the blood on the surface of the wound into water, and clean out any toxins in the blood."

"Seriously?" Frey asked, turning to look at the solemn female. "That's kind of cool."

Dolce chuckled slightly and lowered the shirt slowly over the bandages. "You were lucky. None of your wounds are bad. They're all superficial."

Frey's face fell at the mention of that and she looked worriedly at Dolce. "Dolly? Can you tell me... how... how is Dylas doing?"

Dolce looked unsure at that but Forte spoke up, "I checked on him before I came in here. He's fine Frey. The wound on his leg was originally just a small cut, but he put too much strain on it without bandaging it. He may need a crutch to help him home tonight, but as long as he stays off of it for a day or two he should back to normal in no time, and Jones said the cut on his cheek wouldn't scar."

Frey gave a relieved sigh and Dolce nodded in thanks to the Knight before she turned back to Frey, and the arm she was now examining. "You may not be so lucky. This may need a couple of stitches, and depending on how well those go, you could get a small scar here." Frey nodded in understanding.

"That's okay, all my old ones got taken away by Venti during the fight with Ethelberd. I supposed it's time to gather some new ones." Neither one of her friends laughed and Frey smiled weakly. "Too soon?"

"Considering you just fought for your life? Dolce icily asked. "What do you think?" Frey gave a sheepish smile and Nancy came into the room looking tired.

"Oh good, you're all still here. I must say, all this excitement has certainty kept us busy." The three looked at Nancy who seemed to internally sigh. "Arthur has contacted the Capital, and they are sending more people by Airship. These seem to be some of the mercenaries they were concerned about coming. They are also going to pick up Winster while they are here."

"How are the prisoners doing?"

"The man has a concussion and no hand. He should be fine, no infection or anything to keep him from going to trial... and the woman has multiple burns, a few cuts on her head, a broken arm and a few gashes." Nancy made a disgusted face. "How she kept fighting with her arms like that..."

"It's not that hard." Forte and Frey said at the same time, causing Dolce and Nancy to share a worried look. "What?"

"You two..." Nancy suddenly looked at Forte intensely and motioned for her to come closer. "While I'm thinking of it, I need to talk to you about something Forte."

"Oh. Okay?" Forte followed Nancy out of the small curtained area over to the next stall. Nancy shut the curtain around the bed and Forte looked at her confused. "What's going on?"

"It's about your physical." Nancy said in a low voice. "I meant to call you tonight to come in tomorrow, but since you're already here..."

"Is something wrong?" Forte asked, feeling a sense of dread creeping up inside her.

"Not exactly..." Nancy cleared her throat and looked down at Forte with a face full of mixed emotions. "Forte... when I do a female's physical, I run a series of test on the small blood sample I gather to test for illness and... conditions. Routine things, the cold, the flu, cancer-"

"Cancer?" Forte looked scared and Nancy backtracked quickly.

"No, no, no dear. You don't have cancer. In fact, on that side of things your as fit as a fiddle... but I still need to ask you to, um, tame your activities and maybe... take a few months off of training."

"What?"

"Just a few seasons... and one after."

"Seasons?! One after what?!"

Nancy sighed and then smiled at Forte softly. "Forte, you tested positive for one thing on the physical." Forte stared confused as Nancy took her hand. "Congratulations dear, you're pregnant."

"I'm what?"

"SHE'S WHAT!" Frey and Dolce both pulled back the curtain dividing the two beds and Nancy gave a dissaporving look at the two girls.

"Honestly."

"I'm going to kill him."

All the females then turned and looked over at Kiel and Amber, both of whom looked like they had just gotten back from the forest, and were coming to check in.

"K-Kiel!" Nancy exclaimed nervously. The scholar looked at his sister, who was still trying to process the information she had just been given, and turned on his heels and walked out of the clinic. Frey shot a nervous look at Dolce, who shot a bewildered one at Frey.

Amber bounced forward and hugged the knight happily. "Congratulations Mommy! Can I be their Aunt and make flower crowns with them? Who's the Daddy?"

"Uh, guys?" Frey interrupted. "I don't think Kiel was joking. You may want to go warn Leon."

"Why Leon?" Dolce asked confused.

"Are you really that blind?" Frey asked shocked. Pico decided to make herself known then, nodding gravely besides Dolce.

"They really are. I mean, Leon even told them about how he passionately kissed our fair knight and neither thought the poor lovestruck man was serious."

Nancy waved her hand in front of Forte's face, and the Knight looked at her nervously. "A-Are you sure?"

"Yes. This was one of Jones's teacher's tests. A Miss Marjorie, and her tests are never wrong."

"Guys!" Frey called out, trying to get off the bed she was sitting on. "I'm serious! We need to warn Leon before Kiel tries to kill him!"

Forte finally snapped out of it and got up. "I uh, suppose I should do that." Nancy grabbed the Knights hand and held her in place.

"I just said you need to take it easy. Dolce, will you go?"

"Yes." Dolce moved towards the door and grabbed her hat. "I suppose Kiel will need some help disposing of the body."

"That's not what I meant!"

* * *

**The long awaited announcement has been made**.

See, I didn't forget, I knew right when I wanted to put it and made you wait just the right amount of time to receive it.

Oh Kiel. I'm going to love making everyone wait for the next chapter to hear about what you do to Leon;)


	9. Chapter 9

Frey "We never speak of this..." Dylas grumbled as Leon helped him limp up the stairs to his room. The fox eared man nodded blandly as the former horse hopped to the next step, Leon basically lifting him onto it.

"What are you going to do if you need to go downstairs?"

"I won't go." Dylas said in an agitated manner. "Honestly, I shouldn't need to at all. Doc told me I need to be on a modified version of bed rest for the next couple of days. The only reason I'm not staying there is the lack of room."

"We have been keeping the clinic pretty full as of late." Leon agreed tiredly. As they reached the top of the stairs, Leon helped Dylas over to his room. "I'll go get the crutches."

"Before you do..." Dylas trailed off as Leon turned back to look at him. "Do you think...this is the last attack?"

"I don't know." Leon sat on the chair across from Dylas's bed and ran a tired hand over his face. "It's all going to depend on who exactly these two people are, and if they brought more with them." Leon scratched his ear thoughtfully. "I hope it's just them. You and Frey are both out of commission for the next couple of days, Doug's still recovering, Vishnal's hurt,"

"What happened to Vishnal?" Dylas asked confused.

"He burned his hand pretty bad trying to cook." Leon said with an offhanded air. "Illuminata's unable to fight... so that leaves Forte, Bado, Myself, Xiao Pai and Volkanon as the only major defenders of the town."

Dylas groaned and leaned back against one of his pillows. "So all in all, we're down to half our defenses."

"Yeah..." Leon rubbed his face again and looked at Dylas seriously. "We need to figure out a way into the Forest of Beginnings."

"What about the ring?"

"It was a dead end. Barrette made it on accident while trying to find his friend. He isn't really sure how he managed to make it the first time." Leon explained. "I want to ask the foxes if they know anything, however I can't leave town to ask while we are so low on guards. Forte would kill me."

Dylas nodded and closed his eyes. "This is a mess."

"No arguments here." Leon yawned and looked out the small window and groaned. "Sunrise. I think I'm going to go check in with Forte and go to bed."

"Shit." Dylas groaned and put his hands over his eyes. "How am I going to take Frey to Silver Lake if I can't even get out of bed?"

"Why to Silver Lake?"

"The moron loves winter." Dylas grumbled. "I was going to take her there for a date."

"Oh right, It's the sixth tomorrow." Leon shook his head. "Sorry Dylas, you may just need to find a way to entertain her here." Dylas mumbled something in response and Leon grinned wickedly. "Just remember, Frey is a delicate and innocent lady, and your walls are thin. Be gentle."

"SHUDDUP!" Dylas said, chuckling a nearby book at the fox. "Like you have any room to talk!"

"What do you mean? I have been a perfect gentleman with Forte."

"LEON!"

Both men looked up startled as they heard Kiel yell out. "Kiel?" They heard Arthur talk to the boy, "is everything okay?"

"No! Where's Leon?! Xiao Pai said he was here!"

"He was helping Dylas upstairs last I knew. Actually could you," Arthur trailed off as the sound of footsteps flying up the stairs came closer. Dylas sent a bewildered look over to the former priest, who seemed as shocked as Dylas felt. "What did you do?"

"I don't know."

"LEON!" Kiel shouted as he came racing into the room, glaring at the man. "I'm going to kill you."

"Wait, what?" Dylas moved towards the edge of his bed and looked at the furious scholar. "Kiel what's going on?"

"What's going on?" Kiel yelled, rounding on Dylas, "What's going on!? I'll tell you what's going on! Leon got my sister pregnant!"

"I what?" Leon deadpanned as Kiel whirled back towards him.

"You got Forte pregnant! Forte is with child! You slept with my sister!" Kiel all but screamed. "You lied to me! Just yesterday you told me I had nothing to worry about, but it turns out I have everything to worry about!" Kiel flung his arms about wildly as he talked, getting more animated than either boy had ever seen him. "I thought you were just being nice when you offered to stay with Forte while I was at the castle, but it turns out you were just trying to sleep with her!"

"Wait, Kiel." Leon stopped as Kiel ignored him, angrily gnashing his teeth as he continued.

"I mean, I knew you two were dating, but I thought a priest would have more self control! What's worse is this would have happened before you two decided to tell me! You did this thinking it was behind my back! You lied!" Kiel rounded on the man and glared. "How could you?!"

"It wasn't like that Kiel! We weren't trying to go behind your back! I wasn't trying to sleep with her when I offered!" Kiel rolled his eyes and Leon growled in annoyance himself. "It's true! Neither of us meant for it to happen! We only ever did it once, and it just sort of happened! We didn't mean for it to be behind your back!"

Kiel didn't say anything, he just kept glaring at Leon. Then out of nowhere he wound up and punched Leon in the face, actually causing Leon to fall off of his chair. Kiel then turned and stalked out of the room, not bothering to look at the man as he left. Leon groaned and rubbed his jaw as he sat up, and looked over at Dylas, who was staring down at the priest unamused.

"A perfect gentleman, huh?"

"Shut up."

"You realize Ventuswill would eat you if she was here."

"I need to go find Forte." Leon said, leaving the room as Arthur came up the stairs, looking scandalized. "Not one word." The guardian warned as he walked by the Prince and towards the stairs.

Arthur watched the man disappear then sighed. "And here I was coming to warn him that Dolce was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs."

* * *

"Alright Frey," Nancy said as she came back over by Frey's bed, "You can leave now. All of test for poison in your wounds are negative. It looks like our mercenaries weren't as thought out as they could have been." Frey nodded and grabbed her gloves from the table next to her. "Now make sure you go easy the next few weeks and don't strain your left arm too much or your stitches will tear."

Frey nodded again, "So no dual blades, only a short sword for a while."

"Frey-"

"I may not have a choice." Frey said as she stared at the nurse in front of her. Nancy sighed but didn't deny the truth in Frey's words. She turned to go, then turned back, "We sent Dylas home, so when you go visit him can you be sure to remind him to take the potion Jones gave him?"

"Yeah...Is Forte still here?" Frey asked as she walked out of her enclosed curtain and into the front of the house."

"Not exactly." Nancy opened the front door and looked out. "She's, um, adjusting to the news still." Nancy said with a small frown. Frey followed Nancy's gaze and saw Forte sitting on a nearby beach, gazing at the water. "Maybe you could talk to her?"

"Yeah..."Frey walked over to the Knight and Nancy left to give them some privacy."You okay?"

Forte didn't say anything and Frey put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. Forte glanced over at her friend and frowned. "How... How could this happen?" Forte groaned and put a hand on her head, looking at the sky."We only just started dating. We were going to tell everyone after things calmed down... We only ever... Once..." Forte groaned and looked at Frey a bit like a lost puppy. "How is Leon going to react?"

"Well, if it's anything besides pleased I'll join Dolce in killing him."

"Frey, I'm being serious!"

"So am I!" Frey made a begrudging sigh and looked at Forte earnestly."I'm not going to lie, your two's lives just got a lot more complicated, but a baby isn't a bad thing... Just more interesting." Forte groaned and Frey patted her back as soothingly as she could. "Forte, Leon is a good guy... I'm honestly a bit surprised you two.. Er, didn't wait. Leon will be there to help you. I know he will."

"What will we do though? How will everyone react? Kiel and Dolce are acting horrible enough- can you imagine what Bado and Meg will do?" Frey didn't answer and Forte cringed. "How do we raise them? What will Leon want? I...I don't know what to do."

Frey stayed silent, and then she pulled her hand off Forte's back and grabbed one of the Knight's hands. "I don't know Forte... I'm not the one you need to talk to about this."

"What if Leon reacts badly?"

"He won't."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because Venti liked him." Forte looked at the earthmate friend, and Frey smiled warmly. "Leon was Ventuswill's very first friend, he was the human who made her so fascinated with us. If Leon wasn't kind and honorable she never would have chosen him to be her first friend, or allowed him to be her Dragon Priest. Leon is a good man, I trust Ventuswill's judgment."

"When you put it in that format..." Forte said shakily. "I am the dragon Knight, how could I not trust my liege?"

"Exactly." Frey beamed. "Now go get up and find him." A little more solemnly she added, "You may want to find him before Kiel does."

Forte nodded and stood up. "You're right. I need to find him and tell him."

"Good luck." Frey said encouragingly as the knight took a deep breath, and stayed rooted to where she stood. Frey's smiled faltered as she saw Forte pale a little bit and her hand tremble slightly. "Forte, do you need me to go with you?"

"That may be best."

* * *

"Granny get off!" Doug complained as Blossom inspected his arm and chest thoroughly. When he had come back cover in blood, again, Blossom had panicked and had demanded she make sure he didn't have a scratch on him, despite Xiao's testimony that it was the mercenaries' and Dylas's blood and not his.

"I will not stop until I am certain that those thugs haven't put so much as a hair out of place!"

"Jones already looked me over!"

"I want to be sure!"

Xiao Pai giggled a bit as Doug crossed his arms in defeat and Granny Blossom looked over his clothing. "If I was twenty years younger, I would go over there and make those mercenaries sorry they ever stepped foot into the kingdom of Norad! Those bullies! How dare they hurt my family."

Doug smiled sadly as Blossom ranted on, and Xiao shot him a curious look. Finally Blossom was satisfied that Doug wasn't damaged any worse than he had started the previous day and allowed him to go upstairs to change.

"Xiao, would you be a dear and collect his clothes from him? I took some advice from Nancy, and I want to see if I can get that blood out of his jacket. I'd hate for him to have to buy another one so shortly after him getting this new one."

"Yes, yes! I will help most gladly!" Xiao said with a nod, hurrying up the staircase. When she got to the top, she turned and started towards Doug's room. "Doug, I am- AH!" Xiao turned away quickly and Doug yelped and raced over to shut his door.

As it slammed shut Doug hollered, "What are you doing?!"

"I came for your Laundry for Blossom! Why was your door not shut?!" Xiao said, blushing profusely as she tried not to think about the mostly naked dwarf.

"I hadn't realized it was!" Doug called through the door. "Jeez. Just give me a moment. It's hard to change with this stupid sling." Xiao took a deep breath and leaned against the wall by the red head's door. She could hear him moving around and grumbling a bit. "Seriously, you and Granny both need to be better about announcing yourselves."

"Perhaps it is you who needs to be better about shutting their door." Xiao said with a small eye roll. She fiddled with her long sleeves as she waited, trying not too hard to think about Doug in the room changing. She took a calming breath and looked up thoughtfully. "Doug, we are friends, yes?"

"Yeah, why?" His voice sounded a bit muffled as he responded.

"May I ask you a question as a friend?" Doug answered to the affirmative and Xiao Pai took a small breath before asking. "Why did you look so sad as Granny cared for you?"

"Ah." Doug didn't respond beyond that, and Xiao listened to him rummaging around his room. Suddenly the door opened and an embarrassed looking Doug came out wearing brown pants and a plain cream shirt. "It wasn't that I was sad, exactly." He said as he handed Xiao his old shirt and jacket. "I was just... a little wistful I guess."

"Why so?"

Doug's face fell into that same sad smile as he scratched behind his neck awkwardly. "You see... when I was a kid, I got picked on by some of the older kids in my village. I was too young to really fight back or anything, so my older cousin Zaid made it his personal mission to seek vengeance for me. Granny, well she just sounded a lot like he did when he was mad."

"I am sorry. I did not mean to pry so much." Xiao said lowering her gaze.

"It's fine, I mean... It's actually kind of nice that Granny sees me that way, you know? It's nice to have a family and someone who cares about me again." Doug said with a shrug as he made his way down the stairs.

"We all see you as family." Xiao said softly. Doug stopped on the step and looked back at Xiao Pai a bit stunned as she continued. "You mean very much to all of us here. You are important." Doug blushed a bit and Xiao smiled at him. "Come, let us not keep Granny waiting longer."

"O-okay." Doug said following her down stairs. As Xiao handed off his clothes to Granny she grinned mischievously at the girl.

"Thank you Xiao, you'll make a fine wife one day." She added a wink at Doug and both went bright red.

"What?! Oh no! no! I am much too clumsy! I am not graceful or pretty like mama!" Xiao chocked out.

"..." Doug looked at the girl next to him, and without thinking went, "I think you're beautiful." Xiao whipped her head over to stare at Doug, and as he processed what he said, he coughed and awkwardly looked away. "I-uh...yeah."

"Wha... oh no, no, no! You are joking, I -Ah!" Xiao tripped as she tried to move back.

"Xiao!" Both Granny and Doug raced forward to help as Xiao sat up rubbing her head.

Xaio jumped up as quickly as she could as the two came closer. "I am fine, yes? I just need," She began to back away towards the door, "I need to go home and help mama! She will be needing, uh, soup soon!" Doug's face fell as Xiao Pai opened the door and waved at them. "Perhaps we talk later? Yes, yes!" She then quickly shut the door and Doug stood dumbfounded looking at where she had been.

It was quiet for a moment, then Granny put a consoling hand on Doug shoulders. "Don't worry Doug, I think you just startled her. She'll be back later, I'm sure."

* * *

Leon groaned as he walked into the inn exhausted. He had been searching for Forte for two hours and couldn't find her anywhere. He had found Dolce, who he was pretty sure had tried to curse his eyebrows off. Oddly enough, Pico had helped him dodge the attack and got him out of Arthur's office, and the Clinic, safely.

Leon looked over towards the desk and saw Xiao Pai sitting there, holding an ice bag to her head, looking dazed.

"Xiao Pai? You alright?" Xiao didn't answer, she just stared at the open guest book in front of her blankly. "Xiao? Miss Pai?"

"Huh?" Xiao stirred a little and looked up at Leon, who was staring worriedly at her.

"You okay? You're looking pretty out of it... Do I need to take you to Jones again?" He asked tapping the ice bag.

"Oh! No, no, no! I am fine!" Xiao Pai quickly removed the ice bag and shut the guest book. "I am just thinking on something Doug said is all."

"Did that idiot say something to upset you?" Leon growled, momentarily forgetting his own problem.

"...No..." she sighed and fiddled with edge of her sleeve absently. "He said something very nice." Leon blinked in surprise and Xiao gave him a sad smile. "I am just thinking what it could mean in my head... I do not mean to worry you."

Leon raised an eyebrow, but let the conversation fall. He glanced over at the log book for the baths and scanned down the names, not seeing Forte's on there. "Hey Xiao? Is the water safe for pregnant women?"

"Huh?" the girl stared at him confused, before she responded. "Yes. The water is fine if they do not soak to long. Why?"

"Just curious..." He looked around the room and felt frustrated seeing no sign of the knight again. "Have you seen Forte anywhere?"

"I have not." Xiao raised an eyebrow herself now as she surveyed the man in front of her. "Leon, are you okay?"

"LEON!" Leon flinched upon hearing his name yelled out and slowly turned around to see Frey looking at him expectantly. "I have been looking everywhere for you!" She came over and grabbed his arm and began to pull him out the door. "Forte needs to talk to you about something."

"She sent you?"

"Actually, we were looking for you together." Frey explained. "However, she wasn't feeling so great so I made her wait in my room while I finished looking." Frey glanced at the man out the corner of her eye. "Where have you been?"

"Looking for her." Leon answered as they passed the blacksmith. Frey stopped short of the plaza and turned around to look closely at the man in front of her, eyes lingering on his face.

"Your eye is swollen." Frey sighed and looked nervously towards the castle. "Dylas told me that Kiel confronted you, but I had hoped you wouldn't look like he did." Leon stayed quiet as Frey chewed over her thoughts. "I know Kiel told you about Forte... but she doesn't exactly know you know yet."

"You know?" Leon asked looking at the girl bemused. "How do you know?"

"I was in the next room with Dolce when Nancy told Forte... and there when Kiel and Amber walked in." Frey looked at the man seriously. "Forte is really scared and nervous right now, and I calmed her down a lot, but so help me Leon- If you do anything less than honorable I will go Selphia justice on your ass!" Frey threw a finger in his face and glared daggers at him. "I vouched for you using Ventuswill, so you had better- what's that?"

Leon fought a smile as Frey leaned forward and looked at the object he had just taken from his pocket. "This is all I have had time to make in the past few hours, given I was dodging attacks and looking for a certain Knight. Frey glanced back up at Leon who tried to look as serious as he could. "Frey, I want to talk to her."

Frey nodded and moved so Leon could go past her and into the plaza of the palace. As he walked by her he felt her smack the back of his head, and he whipped around to face Frey. "I hit Forte too. You both are idiots." She shook her head and walked away. "Now go talk to her. If you guys need me I'll be with Dylas."

Leon shook his head slightly and made his way into the courtyard, feeling the gravity of the situation as he came closer to Frey's apartment door. He reached to open the door, his hand shaking, and paused for a moment. He took a deep breath and opened the door to go in.

He instantly saw Forte, sitting on Frey's bed, her helmet was off and her hair was down. She was running her hand through it nervously as she waited for Leon. Once she noticed him she slowly lowered her hand and stared at him. Neither of them moved, they only stared at each other.

"You know." Forte said after a moment, not breaking his gaze.

"I do." he replied. Forte continued to stare at him, almost as if trying to figure out what to say next. Finally, she stated, "I'm supposed to lay off my duties for the next couple of months."

Leon chuckled, and Forte glared at him. He smiled back, unable to help himself. "That is what you would think of."

"What's that suppose to mean?!" Forte demanded, the tension in the air easing a bit. Leon walked over to the bed and sat down by her, still wearing an amused smile.

"It's just very Forte of you."

Forte gave a small huff of annoyance and looked away. "I didn't just think of that!" She took a few deep breaths and grew a solemn as she back looked at Leon . "I also thought about how I was going to tell Bado and Meg... about how I'd tell you."

"Kiel beat you to that." Leon jested lightly.

"I can see that." She said, motioning to his eye.

"He packs quiet the punch." Leon commented lightly.

"He does." Forte had a slightly proud edge to her voice. "However, he should not have punched you."

"I can't really blame him for wanting to. We did... break the rules a little." Leon leaned back on the bed and stared at Forte. "I'd be lying though if I said I didn't like the consequences."

"WHAT!" Forte nearly fell backwards in shock as she looked at Leon scandalized.

Leon laughed nervously at Forte's reaction. "Well... I guess there is something you should know about me. I'm very fond of children. For a long while I didn't think I'd ever be able to have any of my own, as I made a promise to an old childhood friend to marry her... only to become a guardian before we could ever reach the allowed age."

"Maria."

"Yes, I believe I told you about that." Leon smiled sadly. "It was the one regret I had about making that promise." He smiled a bit ruefully. "I was beyond words when I found Maria's letter to me, freeing me of my vow. I was elated to have the chance to find my own family again, elated that I had a chance to be with you."

Leon grabbed Forte's hand and looked into her eyes. "I will be there for you in all of this. I want to help you raise this child. Will you allow me that honor?"

Forte nodded her head, her eyes filling with tears. "It would be a privilege to have you help raise them."

"Will you let me help raise them the proper way?" Leon asked, sliding off the bed, still holding Forte's hand. "I know I haven't shown it much recently, but I am an old fashioned man, and I want to do this right."

"Leon, what are you doing?"

Leon ignored her question and continued on. "I want to be there to protect you and our child. I want to be able to help if you don't feel well when you wake up and I want to be able to get up in the middle of the night to rock our child back to sleep. I don't want to be away from you." Leon held up a small woven leather ring. "I didn't have time to make a proper ring for you, but I feel that this will do until I can construct a sturdier one." Forte stared speechless at the man as he stared into her eyes.

"Will you marry me?"

Forte stared at the man for a moment before she nodded her head, the tears finally falling softly down her face.

"Yes."

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I'M SO DAMN SORRY! I AM NOT WORTHY TO WRITE THIS STORY!

IT TOOK ME SO EFFING LONG TO GET THIS DONE! -although the late posting wasn't entirely my fault...

See, I was working on this chapter and the next at the same time and I had a friend proof read them... and because of the next chapter she confiscated my files and told me she wouldn't give them back until I was nicer to them and didn't hurt the poor babies. She was joking (not really, not gonna lie there is a seriously dark moment in the beginning of the next chapter) but forgot to give me my jump drives with the files back. Then she went home... which is located in another states then me...

Long story short I had to get them back from across the country because apparently I'm mean to F- someone in the next chapter. But on the plus side it should only be a few days until the next chapter is up. Look for it on August third.

I'm gonna go now, cause I hate author's notes (though you'd never be able to tell) and most of you won't read past the apologies.

Please feel free to comment and favorite! Bye!


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